Animation was once very expensive to produce because it was drawn and colored by hand, and then each frame was photographed. Most of the cartoons we all watched as children were animated overseas because the cost of producing them locally was just too high. Programs like Adobe Animate have made it possible for independent artists to create shows digitally and the field is now wide open. Many of the animated shows on Comedy Central, Cartoon Network, and Nickelodeon are created using this software.
What Can Adobe Animate Do For You?
You can bring animated characters to life for games, cartoons, infographics, ads, or avatars, then publish your creation to many different platforms in numerous formats.
What is Adobe Animate?
Animate is an animation program from Adobe Systems, Inc. You can create artwork using the drawing tools built into Animate or you can import artwork created as layered Photoshop or Illustrator files. You can also work with flat images. Animate includes Assets which has some pre–built characters (animated and static) and sound clips. They are customizable, so users can also make their own assets, with reusable elements and animations that can be used across files. Along with other programs like Photoshop and Illustrator, Animate is part of Adobe Creative Cloud, a collection of applications for all aspects of animation.
Essential Features of Adobe Animate
Animate offers auto animation called "tweening," a process where animators create keyframes to map out the changes they want to make, and then the program automatically creates the "in between" frames for you. It's the common way of doing it for a lot of media animation.
Another plus for Animate is the ability to export animations to any platform. You can set your projects to HTML5 Canvas, WebGL, a video file and more. If exporting to an interactive format like HTML 5 Canvas Animate also lets you include code snippets inside your projects without having to write code.
Like other Adobe products, Animate lets you customize your work space and offers many presets and automations for making your workflow more efficient. You can choose to use the drawing tools within Animate or import assets from other programs like Photoshop, Illustrator, and After Effects. Additional features of Animate include layers and layer groups for timeline organization, symbols for reusable static or animated assets in a project, and powerful drawing tools like the new dynamic brush.
History of Adobe Animate
Known by many names over time—FutureSplash Animator, MacromediaFlash, and Adobe Flash Professional—what eventually became Animate was developed by FutureWave in 1996. Macromedia purchased FutureWave later that year and renamed the product MacromediaFlash. Adobe acquired Macromedia in 2005 and the program was known as Adobe Flash until 2016, when it was renamed Animate because of the prevalence of web-based HTML applications. The current version is Adobe Animate.
How to Purchase Adobe Animate
Adobe offers a monthly subscription to Animate with a 7-day free trial available before purchase. This allows you to experiment with creating animation before deciding if you want to pay for the product. For a few dollars more a month, you can get the full Creative Cloud, which includes access to other Adobe applications like Photoshop, After Effects, Illustrator, and Fresco, plus storage as well. The cost of a monthly subscription to Animate is $20.99. A monthly subscription to Creative Cloud is $52.99.
How to Learn Adobe Animate
When compared to Adobe’s other animation program, After Effects, Animate is much easier to learn and more approachable. There are still many techniques to master in order to create good-looking animations, and the vector graphics tools take practice to be able to use them effectively. While some enjoy watching tutorials and practicing on their own, many people find it easier to learn Adobe Animate through classes.
You can choose classes that meet in-person or online to learn Animate. Some people prefer to attend brick-and-mortar sessions when learning new information, but that isn’t always available. Live online classes have a similar set-up with a real-time, remote instructor who can answer questions and take control of your monitor—with permission—to show you how to do things. Training is part or full-time and available weekdays, weeknights, or weekends.
The best way to prepare for a career shift to a technical field like Motion Graphics Design is to enroll in a bootcamp or certificate program. These are intensive training courses that run from a few weeks to a few months and will cover motion graphics and animation in much more depth than tutorials can. Another plus of training is that you will leave class with a professional-quality sample video portfolio that you can show to prospective employers.
It’s easy to learn Adobe Animate and start a new career. Check out Noble Desktop’s video editing courses. Choose between in-person sessions in NYC at Noble’s location or sign up for live online video editing courses and attend from anywhere. Use Noble Desktop’s Classes Near Me to find other courses in video editing in your area.