Why is the UI in Animate CC 2020 so big?

[luisc12308759]

This feels like such a step forward and step back situation. Is there a way to make the new Animate CC 2020 layout a lot more compact? Im not talking about just the tool bar I mean everything else.

[n. tilcheff]

Well... It is a padding issue. Because, you know, "space it out and it looks prettier".

They decided to cater to touch and high resolutions screens. 

Now people on 1920x1080 screens can't even fit the panels they need in.

It is one step forward and two steps back situation, if you ask me.

[adamlt]

Yeah this is not an improvement. Adobe may be providing the tools for designing UX, but they're a long way from being their own best ambassadors.

But it's the same every year, and it's not even just Adobe. Deep breath. Plough on. 😕

Now, wasn't all this UI redesign supposed to be CSS driven? Can we have access to that so we can fix layout & palette?

[n. tilcheff]

I did tell them multiple times during the prerelase testing that this is a serious issue and users need to be able to control size and spacing; said that at least two levels of padding/density have to be available for everything, even three.

Also: no one in their right mind would use a finger to control anything when they have the most precise selection device in their hand - a Wacom stylus. The only touch interactions I could picture would be pan and zoom.

Touch is not suitable for creating art, it is for consumption and fun, regardless of what is being pushed by marketing.

If I use a piano analogy it will go like this:

"We've made the keys 10cm wide to optimise the keyboard for all those pianists who play with mittens on and for bears with musical inclination."

Now I can't fit the panels I need for work on a 1920x1080 screen. Many people use Animate on laptops with lower resolution than this. I can see that MacBook 13 users tend to often run their displays at 1280x800.

[camiloanaya]

Hopefully they figure out something more 'traditional animator friendly'. I've always felt they need to split animate in half and move all the coding/html stuff somewhere else. Instead, bring in some photoshop brushes, improve the canvas properties, enhance the timeline... 

[headTrix Training]

You can change your workspace, and you can also remove the panels you don't use as much, and reconfigure the entire workspace. You can also go under Preferences and change the preferences to "Expert Preferences" which tightens up the keyframes a bunch, and makes Animate much more compact. I place all my tools on the left hand side so it saves space and makes it compact.

Here is a video on how to manage your workspace (with an older version) but you can get it pretty close to the same layout with the new version

Hope this helps!

mark

[ikugames]

I admit I like the better visibility on the frame number, and it definitely feels like the sensitivity on the sliders is a lot better, it used to be harder to adjust brush size by hand, but these are still some huge margins on the properties and tools windows. I was also able to skinny things up a bit on the timeline by changing to Expert mode, it'd be nice if that also narrowed the vertical space on the other panels.  That little section on the tool bar where you change the brush settings on the lower left is something I use frequently and I keep it undocked so I can move it closer to where I'm drawing, if I try to squeeze the vertical size any tighter than that it just crops off the bottom which is the main area I like to click.

1920x1080:

[simonh66486302]

I agree! I work with a lot of symbols in the library and a lot of layers in the timeline, and it's useful to see more at a glance. Now the timeline layers and the library names have more vertical space, which is a big waste of space for me. 

[denisr70421873]

I agree 100%. The new library layout wastes a lot of space.

I think I'm getting back to the previous version of Animate.

Actually, it seems that version 20.0.1 solves the problem: when I set the UI setting to "compact", the library looks like before: compact & convenient! 🙂

[Preran]

Thank you for the feedback, everyone. I suggest using this form http://adobe.ly/1Ov9omX to share your observations directly with the team.

Thanks,

Preran

[denisr70421873]

Well finally, I switched back to Animate CC 19.

I don't like the UX in v20.

Even in compact mode, the library still looks too big, and a bit crappy (the arrow next to a closed library folder isn't always properly aligned), all panels are too large, etc.

Also, I don't like the fact that the layers' setting icons are hidden until you hover. It's confusing.

And so, I had to switch back to the previous version of Illustrator too, because otherwise, copy-paste seems to be crappy (between latest Illustrator version and previous Animate version).

[thomasf63997602]

Also switching back to Animiate CC 19 now. The new UI is really slowing down my productivity. Too much resizing and scrolling up and down in order to get to the controls I need. The UI is pretty, but not usable.

[camiloanaya]

Same here, back to 19 it is. v20 is pretty, but not usable is best way to describe. The fluid brush was a selling point, but it lags a lot. Often times the lines drawn simply don't appear. 

[Imbob]

We'll is it that my illustrator version is CS6 never required to update but I want to use animate CC latest 19 or 20 as it ease the hardwork from where I'm seeing...I'm also using Flash CS6 ....can I use animate pro 19 with illustrator CS6 or that will be a problem???