Overhaul of Photoshop's Animation tools and timeline for professional animators.

[Sykosan-]

Hi there. First post here.
I am a 2D animator, more specifically a traditional hand-drawn, frame by frame animator. (Just like a traditional Disney animator, but I use Photoshop)
Here's my showreel: (link removed)
My website: (link removed)
I would like, if at all possible to help the design team to create a better, more professional timeline, for traditional animators.
I love the fact that I can animate in PS but as it stands, the timeline and other animation tools, are quite sketchy and clunky in some regards, but still awesome in other regards. 
The list of things to improve is rather long, but not incredibly complex. It is mainly an issue of interface design, but also improving or adding just a few crucial tools. This could turn PS into an unbeatable animation app.
I know Adobe Animate exists, but it doesn't offer "bitmap" animation, and doesn't have all the great painting tools of Photoshop.
The sad thing is that other industry standard, traditional animation tools aren't that great either, such as Toon Boom or TV paint, which are also buggy or very clunky and so old-fashioned it's painful.
I dream of a simple but efficiently designed Timeline, tailored for hand-drawn animation.
I'm not seeking something complex such as rigged animation and bones and whatnot.
Photoshop is amazing for illustration, it could be just as amazing for us traditional animators.
I hope, if anyone knows how to, that I could communicate with some design team to work with them, simply as a friendly consultant, to guide them to implement some effective and much needed updates.
Thanks
Sykosan

[Mylenium]

I know what you mean and I think I have a few ideas of my own, but I don't expect much to happen on this front.

Mylenium 

[Sykosan-]

I am a professional animator and I love using Photoshop's Timeline. But this feature has been neglected and left untouched for many many years with zero improvements or updates. It has some obvious faults which would be so easy to fix. But too many to list here.

As a pro, I know a few simple things could turn the timeline in a much better tool for users like myself. Could you guys put some resources into this? Photoshop could trully be a great bitmap animation software, if it tried. Here's an example of what I do with Photoshop: (link removed). I could help make this app much better.

[jane-e]

Duplicate posts merged to one thread.

Jane

[Sykosan-]

Thanks @jane-e . Thanks @Mylenium 
I forgot I had already posted something 😅
Ah well. I guess I shouldn't keep my hopes up 🤷

[jane-e]

@Sykosan- 

You posted in Ideas, so the Photoshop developers will see it. They may not respond, but it will be in their tracking system.

At its core Photoshop is an image editor. There are other Adobe apps that are made for the use, such as Animate, Character Animator, and After Effects:

https://www.adobe.com/creativecloud/animation-software.html

Jane

[Sykosan-]

@jane-e 
Thanks for your reply Jane. 😊
You're right. Photoshop is mainly an image editor.
But the animation apps you mention are all "vector based" apps.
The beauty of Photoshop's timeline is that it offers a "bitmap based" animation tool.
Much better suited for traditional hand-drawn animation.
The other good thing about it is that, of all the animation apps in the world, it's the only one that has also all of Photoshop's amazing tools. That is very much why it makes it an exceptional animation app, as it is!
Yet, it is criminaly underrated and ignored. 🥲
Photoshop has been sitting on an amazing 2D animation app for maybe 20 years and never realised its potential.
An animator like myself will simply not use Animate, Character Animator, or After Effects, for traditional animation.
Ah well, hopefully I can still use it for years to come.
I just pray they won't remove the timeline some day 😢