Animate 2025?

[Willi Lopes]

Will there be no update for Animate this year?

[Willikolho]

Hello Friend, 

What software did you discover?

[haakon_8192]

Look into Moho. Affordable and pretty powerful.

[detailed_worker5FBC]

Sadly. I am just because of adobe animate and am renewing my CC subscription.
If there are no updates to animate, then there is no point in all other programs. I don’t use After Effects, but other programs have a bunch of alternatives, not only paid but also free.

[Ylazy]

Agree with @detailed_worker5FBC 

My company is using PS/AI/AN for creating ads. Many other companies in my country have the same workflow.

I'm also using AN for creating .swf files for Ruffle.

Looking into this, we can see there's something wrong with Adobe. User's voices don't matter anymore. They forgot that they're making application for users.

[Ultimatebeetle]

I think Adobe will only supporting generative ai feature to their software.  all of major updates are just gen ai.

They even said that "if you won't use gen ai, you will fail and left behind"

I can't see any major updates that really useful for artists, and don't think they care about users like us but money 😕

[beebur]

Flash petering out like this is pretty much the exact way I expected it to die, and yet I still find myself disappointed.

And I mean Flash. Despite the attempted rebrand, this program was born Flash and has died Flash. I don't know a single animator who doesn't simply refer to it as Flash coloquially. If they had wanted to be known as Adobe Animate, they would have treated the rebrand as a time to grow, come up with new ideas, or at least crib the ideas off of their competitors. 

It's honestly hard to believe how little Flash adapted to the needs of studios and freelancers, despite years of requests. Even just getting a program that doesn't crash constantly has been, apparently, too great a request. There are people using Flash CS6-- 12 year old software-- because it runs more stable for them than more recent versions, and extremely little of actual value has been added in those 12 years.

Flash isn't dying now, it died years ago, and it's been a shambling corpse ever since. It's been ages since Toon Boom launched their software, and, I dunno, Adobe probably saw the writing on the wall then and there. Rather than work to compete, they ceded their top spot, and kept charging a monthly subscription for the few who had yet to make the jump. Which includes me. I wanted Adobe to adapt and make this program better. And I'm sure there are people within Adobe who also wanted the program to be better, to try new things, who were completely ignored by management. 

In the end this is all part of a larger problem. Adobe's leadership has made it clear that they are not going to be making programs for artists. Their shift towards generative AI tools, and their recent, baffling comments about their customer base, have made this quite clear. Their programs will not serve artists, it'll serve 'idea guy' middlemen who are like, really smart and creative, they just, uh, don't like, know how to draw, y'know? Drawing is hard, impossible to learn! It's only for people who are naturally talented elites! And who needs to draw when we've got Firefly, right? Surely what will keep Adobe afloat is if Creative Suite is used by fewer people, right?

Right?

[n. tilcheff]

@beebur 

Thank you for this post!

[rayek.elfin]

@n. tilcheff

If events follow history, Animate's active development is already, or will be, halted, with perhaps a few years of remaining basic support given to Animate users. At some point then Flash CS6 will no longer be a viable option due to OS/hardware changes. Even though it is the arguably best version of Flash it isn't legally available for sale nor does it receive any support outside of your Flanimate tools.

With Animate's future uncertain (and probably at the end of its lifeline), Flash/Animate as a viable tool will become untenable/unmaintainable.

I myself currently use a combination of Clip Studio, Moho, OpenToonz/Tahoma2d, and Blender for various animation jobs. Clip Studio might go rental-only in the near future.

The way I see it: a strong open source and community driven alternative is a good answer to animation software going rental or disappearing/be acquired by larger business entities.

OpenToonz/Tahoma2d is already in its core far more advanced than Flash/Animate CC. It's more on par with ToonBoom Animate Advanced and production proven for classic frame-by-frame animation workflows. What is missing in its current state, however, are modern 2d puppet rigging and animation tools: the ones that do exist in OpenToonz/Tahoma2D are rather basic compared to Moho Pro or your Flanimate tools.

I think we already had this discussion years ago, but I would love to see your tools implemented in OpenToonz/Tahoma2D. Would you consider becoming contributers to OpenToonz as developers and slowly transitioning your Flanimate EDAP tools to that open source animation platform? Because the way I see it is that Flash/Animate is now most probably a dead-end that will at some point in the upcoming few years no longer be available to animators, and those animators --including yourself-- will have to migrate to other software anyway. Or at the very least release your tools for other animation software, because Flash/Animate will no longer be an available or supported animation software.

And it would be a crying shame to see your work and EDAP tools/workflow concepts lost to the next generation of animators.

[n. tilcheff]

@rayek.elfin and everyone else who have been so kind to mention EDAP Tools and acknowledge our achievements and contributions, 

Thank you!

Once the Flash situation becomes clear, we will be in a better position to discuss the future and explore other options. For now we are fully dedicated to our project. We have many more ideas and concepts for developing and extending the existing toolset.

@rayek.elfin , we did have this conversation a few years ago, and we are grateful for the idea and the encouragement. Porting the SMR system to OpenToonz/Tahoma2D sounds great, but at this stage we know nothing about the technical side of things and whether it can be be done within a reasonable time frame and with the available resources.

Best regards to all participants in this thread from Vlad ( @Vladin M. Mitov  ) and myself!

[Willikolho]

I believe you've summarized the general sentiment about Adobe's attitude well. Flash/Animate has been, and still is, a part of my professional history over the past 20 years.

[ASK Animator]

I'll be honest I have never made a post to the forums ever. But the lack of communication from Adobe on Animate is terrible. I want to love this program but I am fighting with it at every turn and I am tired. At this point the only people that give me hope for the program are the plugin makers at EDAPT. They care about the program they make it better and better with each update. Not only that they listen to feedback unlike Adobe. There can only be so many times Animate crashes because I copy and pasted something or masked something... these are core fundamentals of your program.  I want to stick to Animate I really do... but with the temptation of Moho giving quality, easy usage and price... it is hard not to resist. I want to be able to make beautiful works of art with Animate, not fight it all the time in order to get it to work.

[sergiopop75]

I've been using Flash since 1999! It has been a very versatile tool and has allowed me to make 2D animation of all kinds. And for the last 14 years I have used it to train university students with incredible results. From the University, Adobe products have less and less presence, due to cost and payment policies. On a personal level, I continue to do projects in Animate, thanks to EDAPT, which is what makes it useful, because many new features implemented in the last 4 years, give many errors. If everything that comes from software, is going to be AI, then we expect boring and very repetitive images, and those who appreciate the creation, we will end up returning to the classics to enjoy what is done by humans 100%.

[Firewood：D]

This is a critical reply.
Since Flash CS6, the software has almost no outstanding new features in animation production. Only the advanced layers and resource deformation tools introduced after AN2019 have excited animators, but the instability of the resource deformation tool has caused errors that are worrying, so it cannot be relied on too much.
There is a small detail, I forgot where I saw the information, the animate department is no longer independent and merged into the AE department. Perhaps this is the direct reason for the "Convert Layers to Symbols" launched by AN21, which is called "pre-synthesis" in AE.
I started using Flash CS3 and followed it all the way to 2024. I know the history of software function changes too well. Adobe's response is very slow, or simply ignores user feedback. If there is no innovation, then at least do a good job of the present. It's a pity that it has stagnated for so long, and only some people who make extensions are patching it up to meet the diverse needs of animators.
The reality is also worrying, that is, Animate's territory in animation production is being slowly squeezed out by other similar software.
So I sincerely hope that Adobe can be user-oriented and take action quickly!

[mohammadmahdi_5575]

I still wanted to start making animations after watching the tutorials, I didn't expect that Adobe would want to do this with so much experience.💔🥲

[mohammadmahdi_5575]

Is there any hope that it will be updated in the middle of 2025?

There are many people who do not know about this matter and are hoping for the next updates

[JoãoCésar]

Hi, everyone.

Just received a message that we'll get a communication by the end of the month.

I know it's not much, but is all I can tell for now without disclosuring any privacy details.

So we'll still have to be patient.

Regards,

JC 

[ASK Animator]

Wish they could have told the community that themselves, but ya knowww. (but for real thanks for keeping us informed since Adobe won't publicly say anything yet)

[Willikolho]

Thank you very much, it's the least I expect from Adobe!

[mohammadmahdi_5575]

please And the 3D rotation part has a problem, if you can tell them to fix the excessive change of the value set by us

[kglad]

@JoãoCésar 

what version is the current animate pre-release?

[sergiopop75]

Will it be before Black Friday? Because it's just the right time to renew your subscription. I'm less and less interested in giving my money to Adobe, which only thinks about AI (what investors want, but not customers).

[sergiopop75]

Nothing new under the sun?

[JoãoCésar]

No, not yet.

Let's hope we hear something until Friday.

[ASK Animator]

It is getting close to the end of the month.... and I don't hear a response from Adobe.... only the sound of crickets.

[sergiopop75]

Let's see if there is a surprise of a sequoia-like robustness!!!

I'm waiting for it.