Adobe Animate CC Timeline running slow on new Mac (plus other issues)

[bn40221598]

Dear Adobe Community,

I have recently purchased a new Mac desktop, and all of the creative cloud applications work great (i.e. photoshop and premiere), but Animate is giving me some trouble for two main reasons:

1. Whenever I play my animation in the timeline, the software lags either moderately or significantly (especially when tweens are present). When using Animate on my old Mac desktop and on a laptop, it works fine and there is no lag. This is a major problem because I am not able to accurately judge my animation time if it is constantly lagging when I play it.

2. Another issue on the new mac and this is a bit difficult to describe - I like to rough in my sketches by quickly tapping my tablet, but if I quickly tap in the canvas either using the brush or pencil tool, it only registers once. Afterwards, if I tap the tablet and the cursor shows up on screen, the brush or pencil tool will not draw. I have to wait a second until it works again, which also hinders my workflow. Oppositely, quick sketching works fine in Photoshop and on the Animate that is on my previous Mac computers.

I frequently use Animate CC in my work and I also use the Astropad app which turns an iPad into a tablet. Animate is updated to the latest version and I have uninstalled and reinstalled it. Does anyone have any suggestions as to what is causing these problems? Either the Mac itself or the software?

Thank you in advance for your help.

[robdillon]

Which operating system version are you using on the old and the new Mac? How much memory do you have installed in each one? Do you have the correct driver version installed for the tablet on the new Mac?

If the problem that you describe in 1. is a problem when playing from the controls at the bottom of the timeline window, then yes, you will not see accurate playback in many cases using those controls. You should see the correct playback when you use Test Movie... from the Control Menu.

[_keyframer]

I have a 5 year old MacBook Pro and see playback issues when using strokes and/or the new paint brush tool. I also suffer playback slowdown when the Free Transform tool is selected. Not sure why this happens but it has and for a few versions.

I suspect the Astropad software could be to blame since it has some amount of lag. It relies on bluetooth correct?

[robdillon]

I don't know anything about Astropad, so I don't know how efficient it is or how it communicates. I do expect that it is less responsive than a purpose built drawing tablet using a serial connection.

What do you mean by "see playback issues when using strokes and/or the new paint brush tool" ? Are you talking about a lag between your action on the tablet and the result on the Macbook Pro's screen? Or something else?

[_keyframer]

The new Paint Brush Tool allows you to create custom brush strokes. When I use it, the more I use it in a document, the worse/slower the playback of my animation gets. I used to think it was because I was on a 2012 MacBook Pro with limited power/speed but I now have a VERY fast gaming PC with a GeForce 1080 video card and I recently experienced the same thing using the Paint Brush tool on a rotoscope animation. After about 20 keyframes with a few strokes each frame, the frame rate during playback (inside Animate CC) drops from 24fps to about 7. I have to use Edit Multiple Frames to select and convert the brush strokes to fills. When I do that, the frame rate is back up to 24fps. It's a bummer because for some reason, the new brush strokes are a huge memory hog on the fastest of machines.

[Bas Kleverlaan]

I have the same problem. Just got a new rig with a 1080Ti and still lagging. Is there a solution yet?

Bas

[Preran]

I am checking with the team to see if this is a known issue that they are working on.

[Mohanaraj]

Hi, Are you on the latest version of Animate CC? Can you please share a sample fla with which you are facing this issue?

Thanks!

Mohan

[Creative Bearings]

Mohan,

I am having the same problems, but I am not using an astropad. I am working in Animate CC, newest version on newest available Mac. In order to animate my vector objects I am getting the spinning rainbow wheel for 30 seconds to a minute on every click of the mouse. I have tried turning off visibility of layers, viewing in wireframes and even working with outlined strokes from AI.

I can not find a way to attach or share my FLA file.

I'd like to find a workaround as my project is getting behind schedule.

Greg

[Asymetrical]

How detailed are your vector files? Are you importing them via Illustrator or are you drawing them directly into Animate? I find that files imported from Illustrator do indeed slow the computer down. A workaround may be to try making your art directly in Animate. I've animated whole 5 minute films in full color in Animate without any slowdown whatsoever but one Illustrator file will make the timeline crawl.

[Creative Bearings]

Thank you Asy,

Yes this appears to be the problem, I have been assuming that my AI vector files would work cross-application into FLA/Animate. I design so much faster in AI and have now decided to begin animating in AfterEffects instead of Animate. I used to like Flash for my animations. Adobe's flagship software is just not capable anymore. I am bummed too. Flash/Animate has become obsolete.

Greg

[Colin Holgate]

Fortunately you're wrong about it being obsolete. But one area it could improve would be to use the GPU for vectors, like Illustrator does.

One thing you can do that might help, if you have an Illustrator drawing that could have been done in one layer and no groups, is to select all of the layers and do Ungroup or Break Apart until everything is just vectors (also convert lines to fills). Then select all, cut, and paste in place. That would put everything into one layer, as one shape.

If it still looks the same as it did in Illustrator, then you would have a version that should be just as if you had drawn it in Animate. That should perform better, but you could go further and use Modify/Shape/Optimize to reduce how many curves are being drawn.

Could you join the Animate prerelease? That way you could give feedback to the team about what it would take to make Animate as good as Illustrator when it comes to drawing.

[ben_a]

Yes, I have this too, it's really frustrating. I use Animate (latest version at time of writing) on two entirely separate computers, one a PC, one a Mac, both pretty fast machines. Using the Stippled style on strokes, or the 'new' Paint Brush tool with Vector brushes put it in 'walking through tar' mode - complete slowdown (spinning rainbow wheel on a mac), not just a minor lag. I can only presume it wasn't tested for frame by frame animation (although that seems crazy!). Any answers greatly appreciated!

[chrisk5565618]

I think I know what you mean regarding #2, and am having the same issue.  If I try to draw brushstrokes very quickly in succession Animate CC only "catches" every other one.  When I try to write the word "ANIMATE" it also doesn't pick up every stroke.  I tried reverting back to the previous driver but it didn't help.  Oddly enough quick successive brushstrokes in Photoshop work fine, which makes me suspect it's an Animate issue.  I know Cintiqs generally have a latency issue but it wasn't so noticeable or hampering to my workflow until recently. 

Adobe Animate CC Brush/Lag Issue - YouTube

[just.emma]

Can you do a Publish Preview?  (Command+Return on a Mac)

That's always going to be more accurate than playing your animation in the timeline.

[Creative Bearings]

Emma,

Yes, I frequently preview and publish using your hint. Once I get the timeline to publish, it works just like expected. Unfortunately working inside of Movie clips is unbearable, and then working inside of clips that are inside of clips has put the app into unbearable spinning rainbow for every click, even menus. These have been fundamental in my animating for the last decade-and-a-half. Now, no amount of patience can get the project(s) done. I am moving over to AfterEffects, where I seem to be able to keep working, although it has its problems, I am hoping (after practically starting over) to get my 4 minute 4K video completed on time.

Thanks for your input.

Greg

[Colin Holgate · Accepted solution]

Animate has a limit of 16000 frames, but for a 4 minute 4K, 60fps video you would still be ok.

When you do an export to video from Animate, it gives perfect frame rate. I would imagine that doing a test movie of a demanding 4k scene would not give you 60 fps in a SWF, but the MOV you get will include all 60 frames per second.

The main reasons, I think anyway, to use AE would be for true 3D movement, and for true motion blur. Animate doesn't do either of those. I'm not sure if AE is as good at character animation, but you could use both tools, and only do Animate-suitable bits in Animate. When you export to video you can choose to include an alpha channel, so that you could overlay those on videos from other tools.

[Amy Charlick]

I have been having this same issue on the latest iMac since the Animate CC 2018 update. Its driving me quite nuts. Very much looking forward to a solution.

[Colin Holgate]

In another topic I made a suggestion that seems to have helped a lot. It's a trade off, but not a terrible one. In Finder you can Get Info on Animate, and check the box that says Open in Low Resolution. It still will look fine, at least it does on my MacBook Pro Retina. You are then having to drive 1/4 of the number of pixels, and things are quite zippy.

[devs36631408]

I'm having the same issue and I only animate in Animate, not AI. The lag is pretty severe even in animations that are less then half a second long and only have two or three layers in them.

I have a 2019 Imac with pleny of RAM and a good processor, and I didn't have the problem until two days ago when two things happened: I installed a new Wacom Cintiq and also Apple had a system update that same day (so I'm not sure which is the problem.) Everything else about the Cintiq and Animate work fine, but the lag happens on playback now whether the Cintiq is on or off.

Also, if I open the same Animate file on my laptop PC (Which is quite older,) playback is perfectly smooth, even on huge files that are several minutes long. 

I've tried most of the suggestions on these forums and nothing has helped.

(Also, there is no option on my computer under Get Info for "Open In Low Resolution.")

Thank you for you help!