Library panel "update" option grayed out (Ai to An revision workflow)

Question

Apologies for such basic questions, but I am woefully new to animation programs and cannot seem to find an answer elsewhere

I am starting an animation project and am importing an .ai file. I need to begin the animation to show progress to my team. I know I may need to make color/shadings revisions to the artwork later and I don't want to have to redo animation work. From what I've read from Adobe, you can click a library element and choose "update" from the library panel options so I've chosen to import instead of pasting assets. But my "update" is always grayed out, even on reimport/restarting program.

1) Is there something I need to do differently on import to enable the update option? (I'm in Adobe Animate v 20.0, macOS Catalina 10.15.1, tried Import > to Library > Convert Layers to Animate Layers as well as Single Animate Layer.)

2) I'm using the same mindset I would if I were creating a piece in Id, where I can update linked assets and refine as I go - is this the wrong approach? Should I expect to only revise art in An itself once an animation has been started?

Thank you all!

n. tilcheff · Accepted Answer

Hi mate,

You can't update imported illustrator shapes. You can with bitmaps and audio files.

Once imported the vector shapes become this and do not maintain any link with the original.

It's OK to import stuff from Illustrator. Many people do so for various reasons, but ideally all character assets have to be created in Flash/Animate and maintained there for simplicity of production.

You may be able to import again using the same settings in another file after you made colour revisions and then copy/paste the into your existing FLA. If symbols have the same name and have not been altered in any way you will be asked whether to replace them; you say 'yes' and that will be the end of it.

In practice one can never just use imporetd stuff right away. You need to do things to those symbols in Animate and this will result in them being different from what you try to replace them with.

So while this method might work for something simple as an icon, it is full of risks in an animation project.

In summary - to be able to successfully handle an animation project you need to know Animate well to be able to anticipate most of the challenges that you will face as time goes by.

I don't know if this will be of interest, but here are a couple of articles that might help get you going:

http://flash-powertools.com/workflow/

http://flash-powertools.com/character-rigging-for-flash-animation/

Here is also a tool which we developed that helps you handle colour changes:

http://flash-powertools.com/symbol-palette-control-panel/

Good luck!

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