Does Adobe Animate work on a Wacom Cintiq 16?

[julema13]

Hello everyone! 🙂

I am planning to buy a Wacom Cintiq 16 pen dislpay for 2D animations. I have never animated before and therefore I am asking for advice from experienced artist/users in this community. 

As a general question:
Does Adobe Animate cc work properly on the Wacom Cintiq 16 pen display? (I was not able to find a direct answer to this question and at the moment, I am not able to ask for help in a multi media store due to the coronavirus situation.) 
If it does work, is the combination of this software and this specific pen display a good choice? Or do you know/use any other alternative pen display in the same price range that defintly works with Adobe Animate?
I am personally a pro artist in "traditional drawing/painting" (paper and canvas). This is the reason why I don't want to invest in a drawing pad without a display where I cannot see my animation process directly on the drawing device. I am using a MacBook Air (2013) High Sierra 10.13.6 ;

I would be very thankful if you could answer my question and give me some advice! 🙂

[n. tilcheff]

Hi mate,

Simple answer would be: yes.

Wacom devices are the only ones officially supported so that is the safest bet.

Now the caveats:

16" pen display will most likely feel claustrophobic. It is very small for drawing + interface.

It takes only two days to get used to using a non-screen drawing tablet, i.e. to draw on the desk and look at the monitor.

In my opinion a pro grade drawing tablet will be a much better choice than an amateur level pen display. So I would advise to get an Intuos Pro.

Recently (in the last year or so) Animate has been having problems with drawing devices in multi-display setups. These will be fixed in the near future, I believe, but when exactly no one can tell.

So if you have a screen tablet using both your laptop screen and your Cintiq and you install the latest version of Animate you will most likely run into these problems and will have to start trouble-shooting or look for an older version of the program which does not have these issues.

Finally, if you are just about to go into animation, here are some links that you might find useful:

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

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

Best of luck!

[julema13]

Thank you very much for your answer!
Good to know that there are some issues with this combo. That was one of my concerns, especially when it comes to investing a quite big amount of money as a beginner-animator. I will look at the recommendations and links you've sent me. 

Greetings and thank you again! 🙂 🙂

[n. tilcheff]

ps.

One more link which is not directly related to Animate, but in my opinion is one of the best books on animation:

Preston Blair's Advanced Animation, first edition, which has entered the public domain. 

https://animationresources.org/instruction-preston-blairs-advanced-animation/

Start of the journey can feel quite steep, but there is much fun to be had as you go, so don't forget to stop, look back, assess the progress you've made and enjoy!

[julema13]

Thank you very much for all these tips, I am very glad! 🙂
I've heard that there's the possibility to use Photoshop as an animation software. Do you know if it works with better with multi-display setups? I've been thinking about getting Photoshop for a while now because of the big variety of tools it offers. May I ask what you use to make animations?

I will take a look into all the links you gave me and will carry on researching to make the best possible choice, I am very excited to get into animating. 😄

[n. tilcheff]

Hi again, mate!

Photoshop, as far as I know, has very limited animation capabilities. It can be very useful for background painting though.

Also, as far as I know, it has none of the multi-monitor setup problems Animate 2020 has.

From what I have read, there are some great free alternatives to Photoshop for drawing/painting such as Krita, Fire Alpaca. Also there is Clip Studio Paint which people love so much.

There is also Open Toonz (free animation program) which apparently works very well with Clip Studio Paint.

So there are alternatives, some paid, some free.

I can't really make a good comparison, because I have invested more than two decades in Flash / Animate and at this stage I'm so comfortable with it I will need to be forced to abandon it for something else.

Here are two examples of my work done in Flash:

https://youtu.be/hcy9lAlDbbU

https://youtu.be/0b29vl5MMFU

[julema13]

Good to know! I will inform myself about those softwares. 
I just looked at your animations, they are amazing! Incredible work! 😄

[David32695690uwls]

Hey! I have a quick question since I'm considering purchasing the Wacom 16. I'd like to use Adobe Animate on it... but would I be able to directly see the art on the tablet as I work on it, or will I only be able to see it on the PC monitor?

[langfang]

Any graphics tablet that is supported in your operating system will work in Animate.
Wacom tablets should work, and with the latest version of Animate there are settings for deciding whether to use stylus pressure or tilt to affect the drawing.
I am using adobe animate with a 15.6" XP-Pen Innovator 16 : https://www.xp-pen.com/product/638.html pen display monitor and the brush works pretty well .

[arjun5E66]

Is there any settings to be done for this ??  to work in adobe animate  CC 2021