Adobe Animate - Please help!!

[joanneh52186360]

Hi there.

I am writing this on behalf of my 12 year old daughter, whose dream is to be an animator (like Jaiden Animations, who is her current idol!)

She has been using a free software called Krita, but for some reason it's stopped working and the time has come to think about some proper software for her.

However, I know NOTHING about this sort of stuff and all of the technical jargon baffles me. None of her school teachers seem able to help, I think because what she wants to do is perhaps too specialised, or it's something they say she should think about when she goes to college to do A Levels.

I need to know if Adobe Anmate is the right software for her. She's pretty smart - taught herself how to use Krita and made a couple of (what I think are super) animations and she has a unique animation/drawing style.

Will Animate allow her to draw her animations and bring them to life or should I be looking at Adobe illustrate instead? Or is AI just really for drawing?

Sorry for all of the questions but it's so hard trying to work out what she needs, and I can't afford the whole CC thing, hoping to just get 1 app which should do the job.

Hugely grateful for any help/advice that can be offered.

Many thanks,

Joanne.

[kglad]

to answer your question we need to know what she plans to do with her creations when completed.

is she creating animations that will be:

viewed on a web page?

installed on a mobile device (eg, iphone or android)?

something else?

[joanneh52186360]

Hi.

She's hoping to export her animations to Youtube.

Similar to this sort of thing, although more Kawaii-type anime YouTubehttp://https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2RQH5Ycj1C8&t=297s

I think that she'd like to be a youtuber/animator - it's a hobby at the moment but she spends pretty much all of her free time on it!

Thank you!

[avid_body16B8]

IF she likes 3D she could try Blender and it's free.

Like for any other software there a tones of youtube videos to learn.

Of course Flash and After Effect are good to animate as well.

[joanneh52186360]

Is Flash a different app, or is that the one that's now called Animate?

I think she's worried about the limitations on free software but I'll look into Blender for the time being.

Thank you!

[kglad]

adobe animate used to be adobe flash (and was macromedia flash before that) and can be used (with adobe media encoder - included with an animate subscription) to create videos for youtube.

3d animation is completely different from 2d (and 2.5d) animation and uses different software.  animate is NOT useful for 3d animation but can be used for 2d and 2.5d (2d objects moving in 3d space) animation.

does she use a tablet to draw?  if so, what brand?

[joanneh52186360]

Yes, she uses a Huion 1060 plus to draw.

I'm pretty sure that what she's doing at the moment is 2d animation (if that's what the link to Jaiden Animation's type mainly is)

This is where I get lost, as I'm not sure of the difference!

[kglad]

she should use a free trial to see if her tablet is compatible: install the cc desktop app from here https://creative.adobe.com/products/creative-cloud and use it to install your adobe subscription and trial programs.

[joanneh52186360]

Okay, we will do that.

Going to download it when she breaks for the Christmas holidays so that she has plenty of time to get used to it.

Fingers crossed that her tablet is compatible with it, otherwise it'll be an upgrade to a Wacom!

Thanks so much for all of your help,

Joanne.

[kglad]

you're welcome.

p.s. as you indicated it's wise to wait to install the cc app until she has time to test it:  the free trial is only 7 days.

[RenoToonen]

Adobe After Effects: Much used for many (mostly 2D) animations. Illustrator & Photoshop are not needed along with it, but do make it easier.

Animate CC: For web-animation / simple games / interactive animations. Mostly used for banners and little games. Not recommended for Youtube export as far as I am aware.

Blender: I'm not that well known about Blender but I did hear of it before and as far as I'm aware its actually pretty good software, even though it is free. It is used professionally. Like kglad said, it is used for 3D.

That aside, I think kglad will be most experienced to give you further advice.