I have a question for a niche group of people.
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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!
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@simon_brooke oh nice!
@eLearningTechie The thing about Open Source software is that if it doesn't do what you want, you can extend it to do what you want -- but you may need to learn a lot more about it than you really wanted to!
Still, it was a hugely fun project, and a really useful tool.
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@eLearningTechie The thing about Open Source software is that if it doesn't do what you want, you can extend it to do what you want -- but you may need to learn a lot more about it than you really wanted to!
Still, it was a hugely fun project, and a really useful tool.
@simon_brooke Absolutely, but not everyone has the skills or time (and motivation) to learn those skills. It's a pity but a fact of life. Like I said earlier on this topic, there are lots of apps out there, it's just a question of finding the one that works for your individual needs. I'm happy to invest some effort, but not everyone is.
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@howtophil Oooh, the screenshots on the webpage certainly make it look worth checking out - and it mentions vector animation too. Thanks!
@eclectech No Problem
I've used it for this and that, but I'm not an animator, so... ymmvIt always seemed pretty slick to me, even early-ish versions
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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
For straightforward diagrams I use Libre Office draw. -
@david_chisnall @eLearningTechie
For straightforward diagrams I use Libre Office draw.@markhburton that makes sense
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@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.@triffen
Graphite is a very interesting concept. I've played with it a bit. I think it could be very cool for procedural 2D motion graphics.But while I think it's worth trying out, it's a very different way of looking at things. So if the goal is Flash but not Adobe, I suspect it doesn't fit the bill.
I only rarely do anything with 2D animation myself, so I don't have food suggestions, but I'm very curious to hear the result of exploring the options people have been sharing.
