I have a question for a niche group of people.
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@eclectech I've used Tumult's Hype https://tumult.com/hype/ as a replacement for Flash for web animations, and they have a free trial if you have a Mac. There is some overlap, though nothing quite matches Flash's old vector tools. The nice thing is you can easily mix and match bitmap and SVG components, and the output can be tweaked in a text editor if need be and it is all in basic web file formats.
@GiantGinkgo Damn, second recommendation for that, but I don't have a Mac (which I realise I should have stated up front - still it might be useful for others as it appears I'm not alone!)
Thanks though!
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@eLearningTechie The best I can say about Inkscape is that it works, but the UI is incredibly clunky and I spend so much time fighting it that I can't focus on what I'm trying to draw.
@david_chisnall @eLearningTechie The (sort of) funny thing there is that Inkscape has been recommended to me as an alternative to Illustrator, and my one overriding experience of Illustrator is that the UI without fail makes me want to bang my head on the wall.
Fortunately I have very rare need to use it, only ever if someone sent me a file in it.
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@eLearningTechie The best I can say about Inkscape is that it works, but the UI is incredibly clunky and I spend so much time fighting it that I can't focus on what I'm trying to draw.
@david_chisnall I agree and transitioning to it wasn't the easiest thing I've ever done, but I'm quite stubborn, so for me it's working out great. But we're all different. Luckily there are loads of tools out there to choose from.
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@eclectech I wish I had answers for you. Any chance you were part of the Flashkit community back in the day?
@ryan Aw, thanks. There have been a few leads to follow up at least.
I wasn't part of the Flashkit community - I think they might have been more technically adept than me (if memory serves)
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@eclectech
Yes, Moho handles bitmaps as easily as verctors. I even have characters which are part vector, part bitmap, or even video (mov).
The timeline will look instantly familiar.Feel free to ask me any question per mail, or directly in the Moho forum: https://lostmarble.net/forum/
@slowtiger This is definitely promising. Thanks.
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@david_chisnall I agree and transitioning to it wasn't the easiest thing I've ever done, but I'm quite stubborn, so for me it's working out great. But we're all different. Luckily there are loads of tools out there to choose from.
Sadly, there seem to be very few tools with a good UI.
OmniGraffle 3 was more or less feature complete for me (the one missing feature I want is still not in 6 Pro: export to SVG keeping each layer as an SVG layer). I want that because Sozi can make layers appear and disappear in animations. A clone of OmniGraffle 3 would make me very happy. Newer versions of the same app make me a bit less happy and the alternatives I've tried just make me sad.
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I have a question for a niche group of people.
The question is for people who have used Flash or Animate to make 2D animations.
Have you found alternative software that has the same overall user experience as old school Flash?
If yes, what is it?
Please note I am aware of a lot of animation packages out there & I know a lot of them are great, but I have a LOT of experience in Flash & if I can ditch Animate but keep the overall experience that would be perfect.
Thanks.
@eclectech Rive is worth checking out, similar to Flash in some ways: https://rive.app/
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I have a question for a niche group of people.
The question is for people who have used Flash or Animate to make 2D animations.
Have you found alternative software that has the same overall user experience as old school Flash?
If yes, what is it?
Please note I am aware of a lot of animation packages out there & I know a lot of them are great, but I have a LOT of experience in Flash & if I can ditch Animate but keep the overall experience that would be perfect.
Thanks.
@eclectech https://www.synfig.org/
Synfig Studio? I suggested it to my "non techie" friend, and he picked it up fast enough
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@eclectech Rive is worth checking out, similar to Flash in some ways: https://rive.app/
@damianwalsh Thanks, will take a look.
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@eclectech https://www.synfig.org/
Synfig Studio? I suggested it to my "non techie" friend, and he picked it up fast enough
@howtophil Oooh, the screenshots on the webpage certainly make it look worth checking out - and it mentions vector animation too. Thanks!
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@david_chisnall @eclectech I don't know how https://friction.graphics compares to Flash or Animate as I've not used Flash in the last two decades and have never used Animate. I rarely do animation work, but have dabbled with Friction on occasion. It's pretty feature rich, but documentation could be better.
@eLearningTechie @david_chisnall @eclectech Friction might work, the UI/UX is more AE-like, but everything is vector (we also support bitmap), export can be animated SVG, video or image seq. Since I have not used Flash since ~2000 I don't remember the UX, but we are open for UX suggestions from Flash/Animate users.
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Secondary factor is I really don't like Adobe, and would like to ditch them. I have identified alternatives for everything else I use so this is my stumbling block.
Also don't mind paying for software, but would prefer 1. it wasn't Adobe & 2. it was a one off purchase rather than SAAS.
Quick thanks to everyone boosting and making suggestions here. I am making a list!
Might take me a while to go through but I will feedback (with particular reference to whether it's an easy transition from Animate) when I can.
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I have a question for a niche group of people.
The question is for people who have used Flash or Animate to make 2D animations.
Have you found alternative software that has the same overall user experience as old school Flash?
If yes, what is it?
Please note I am aware of a lot of animation packages out there & I know a lot of them are great, but I have a LOT of experience in Flash & if I can ditch Animate but keep the overall experience that would be perfect.
Thanks.
@eclectech I recall I created some animations with SVG and CSS and JS. I've coded it, but I'm sure something can export this combo. If not, AI can animate a well structured SVG to some extent.
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Quick thanks to everyone boosting and making suggestions here. I am making a list!
Might take me a while to go through but I will feedback (with particular reference to whether it's an easy transition from Animate) when I can.
@eclectech That'll be useful. Looking forward to your review as I'm always looking for new (free) tools to play with.
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Please note I am aware of a lot of animation packages out there
Are you aware of any open-source animation packages that do even a half-arsed job of doing what Flash could do in the late '90s (simple vector drawing, keyframe-based animations)? Ideally ones that can export to something viewable in a browser.
I miss Flash.
@david_chisnall Friction2D fits your particular list, but I have never opened Flash.
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I have a question for a niche group of people.
The question is for people who have used Flash or Animate to make 2D animations.
Have you found alternative software that has the same overall user experience as old school Flash?
If yes, what is it?
Please note I am aware of a lot of animation packages out there & I know a lot of them are great, but I have a LOT of experience in Flash & if I can ditch Animate but keep the overall experience that would be perfect.
Thanks.
@eclectech I've done some animation of SVG using JavaScript and later #ClojureScript (for interactive electricity grid display diagrams). The technique works but it's very geeky and pretty niche.
(The original diagrams were drawn using Inkscape, and we created a palette of active components you could add into Inkscape drawings)
There's a demo here which shows the concept:
https://simon-brooke.github.io/swinging-needle-meter/resources/public/index.html
Unless you're comfortable with writing software this is not the right technique for you.
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@david_chisnall @eLearningTechie The (sort of) funny thing there is that Inkscape has been recommended to me as an alternative to Illustrator, and my one overriding experience of Illustrator is that the UI without fail makes me want to bang my head on the wall.
Fortunately I have very rare need to use it, only ever if someone sent me a file in it.
@eclectech Again haven't tried Illustrator, but people say that Affinity Designer feels much more like Illustrator than Inkscape does.
For mostly vector graphics there is also Graphite, it's mostly web only now but they've just released the first version of desktop app too, and promise add more animation nodes. It's node-based for all the procedural stuff, but you can also just draw stuff in it without looking at node graph.
I'm learning it in hopes that I like its animation stuff when it comes
As I'm more limited in options being on Linux.
My list is Manim that I write for in Python, and Friction2d for manual stuff. But it doesn't tween or deform raster past scaling and shearing, so morphing this raster image was quite a struggle. -
@david_chisnall I agree and transitioning to it wasn't the easiest thing I've ever done, but I'm quite stubborn, so for me it's working out great. But we're all different. Luckily there are loads of tools out there to choose from.
@eLearningTechie @david_chisnall I also use Inkscape for all my vector drawing stuff, but, to be honest, it's mainly technical rather than artistic.
Having said that, I have used Inkscape to create animated graphics, and even (for a past employer) created a palette of animated components which could be dragged and dropped into Inkscape drawings.
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I have a question for a niche group of people.
The question is for people who have used Flash or Animate to make 2D animations.
Have you found alternative software that has the same overall user experience as old school Flash?
If yes, what is it?
Please note I am aware of a lot of animation packages out there & I know a lot of them are great, but I have a LOT of experience in Flash & if I can ditch Animate but keep the overall experience that would be perfect.
Thanks.
@eclectech Have you heard of Cavalry yet? Have no idea how it compares, but I see it praised, and it's free for Windows and Mac (which is why I haven't yet tried it, but might wake up Wine for that).
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@eLearningTechie @david_chisnall I also use Inkscape for all my vector drawing stuff, but, to be honest, it's mainly technical rather than artistic.
Having said that, I have used Inkscape to create animated graphics, and even (for a past employer) created a palette of animated components which could be dragged and dropped into Inkscape drawings.
@simon_brooke oh nice!
