What is Adobe Animate?

Adobe Animate is an Adobe application used to create 2D animation and interactive vector graphics. Before it became Animate, it was known as Adobe Flash Professional, a popular program in the late 1990s and 2000s. With it, Animators can produce content for various media, including television, gaming, apps, and the internet. In this overview, you’ll learn more about what Adobe Animate is, what it can do, who uses it, and how to learn it so you can determine how to add this skill to your professional toolbox.

What Can You Do with Adobe Animate?

People have been using animation for more than one hundred and fifty years to entertain and communicate a wide variety of content. Animation can grab an audience’s attention, tell stories, simplify complex content, and communicate ideas quickly. As a result of its versatility and universal appeal, animated content is used in many professions. Early animation featured hand-drawn content. However, today’s Animators use computers and animation applications such as Adobe Animate.

When people think about animation, many think of cartoons, which are indeed one thing many Animators create. Animation is in countless forms of media, and much of it develops from applications like Adobe Animate. Adobe Animate, in particular, is frequently used to generate cartoons and 2D animated television shows. The application can be used to create characters and add effects and audio, and it has developed many well-known shows and movies, including My Little Pony and The Amazing World of Gumball. However, cartoons are only one of the things that Animators create with animation apps. Apps also help to create video games for computers and mobile devices, educational content, and a wide variety of advertising and animated content for the internet.

The US Bureau of Labor Statistics explains that Animators typically choose a specific medium to work in, such as television or video gaming. In addition, they often specialize within that medium. For example, some video game designers specialize in creating characters, while others focus on scenery. Animators who specialize in this way are typically part of a larger team, with each team member working on one part of a project.

How Do You Get Adobe Animate? How Much Does it Cost?

Adobe Animate is part of Adobe Creative Cloud, a collection of applications that are available by monthly subscription. In order to access any Adobe app, users first need to create an Adobe account. After that, they can download and install the application on up to two computers. An Adobe subscription also gives users access to a library of other Adobe resources, including Adobe Fonts, Creative Cloud Libraries, Creative Cloud Assets, and Creative Cloud Market.

Users can start with a free seven-day trial of Adobe Animate or whatever Adobe application they want to try, and after that, they need to subscribe to one of Adobe’s monthly plans to continue using the app. Adobe charges $20.99 per month for a single app, such as Adobe Animate, or $54.99 per month for access to all Creative Cloud apps. The business price is $35.99 per month for one app or $84.99 for all apps.

What Are the Benefits of Learning Adobe Animate?

Adobe Animate and other animation applications are valuable tools for people who want to work in animation or motion graphics. Animation is created by generating a series of images, each slightly different from the one before. Viewers see the illusion of movement when the images move in quick succession. In traditional animation, all images are hand-drawn, which takes a lot of time. Applications like Animate eliminate the need for hand drawing, saving countless work hours.

The majority of Animators now use computer applications like Animate. This means that anyone planning to work in animation will need to learn at least one animation app. Not only do apps like Animate eliminate hours of hand drawing, but they give Animators a number of new tools that they can use to manipulate their animations in ways that would be difficult or impossible when drawing by hand. For instance, with Animate’s puppet animation, users can manage a character rig without redrawing it.

Read more about why you should learn Adobe Animate.

Adobe Animate Careers

The word “animation” often makes people think of television shows and movies, and while this is a common place for Animators to work, there are many other things that an Animator can do. Animators work in many different industries. Some create animation for video games and websites, while others work on visual effects. Animators create educational content that teachers use, and they design medical imagery for the public and people in medical professions. They also work as software designers and for advertising firms. Overall, being an Animator can lead to a wide variety of jobs.

Employment statistics from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics show that animation is a good field to work in, in terms of salary and job opportunities. The agency reports that the median annual wage for Animators and special effects artists is $78,790. It expects about 6,700 new job openings each year for the next ten years in this field. Many of these openings will be for animation and visual effects for movies, television, and video games. The agency explains that ongoing demand for Animators will be related to the continuing need to create new animated content for mobile devices such as smartphones.

How to Learn Adobe Animate

There are several ways to learn animation and motion graphics. One of the most common is taking an in-person class. In-person classes are popular because students don’t have to watch a recording on a screen but instead receive live training from an experienced instructor who can keep students engaged and answer their questions in real-time. Many students feel this is the best way to understand animation or motion graphics topics. Those who don’t have access to in-person classes can sign up for live online classes, where they still attend a live lecture but have the freedom to watch from any location.

While live online classes are more flexible than in-person ones, some people need an even greater level of flexibility, and for them, on-demand classes can be a good fit. The on-demand format lets students take the course material at their own pace, working whenever and from wherever they choose. Many on-demand classes still include opportunities to interact with instructors and other students. An advantage of some of these classes is that classmates may live all over the country or the world, adding a diversity of perspectives. Finally, on-demand classes often cost less than live ones. 

Noble Desktop offers a Classes Near Me tool that shows the various options for learning animation and motion graphics topics, like Adobe Animate or After Effects, for students who are unsure about which class format is best for them.

Free online resources can be an excellent way to start learning about animation and motion graphics for students who need more time to be ready to sign up for a formal class. Noble Desktop’s Learning Resources library has information about animation and motion graphics, the types of careers they can lead to, and how to learn them. There are also many free animation tutorials on YouTube, such as how to use Premiere Pro. Another way to get free animation and motion graphics information is to watch a free animation seminar from Noble Desktop.

Read the full guide on how to learn animation & motion graphics.

A Brief History of Adobe Animate

The history of Adobe Animate goes back to 1993 when software developer Jonathan Gay and computer entrepreneur Charlie Jackson founded a company called FutureWave Software and released a program called SmartSketch. SmartSketch was an animation tool that allowed users to draw on a computer screen with an electronic pen. Gay and Jackson later added some features to the program that allowed users to display their animations on a website. They renamed their program FutureSplash Animator and released it in 1995. 

After that, the program underwent several different name changes, and its features also changed over time as computers and the internet evolved. In 1996, Macromedia bought the rights to FutureSplash Animator. It shortened the words “future” and “splash” into “flash” and renamed the program Macromedia Flash. In 2005, Adobe took over Macromedia, and the program adopted the name Adobe Flash. 

Adobe Flash became very popular in the early twenty-first century and was used by the majority of websites. For example, when YouTube launched in 2005, it used Flash, as did many games and interactive web tools at that time. Flash declined in popularity after HTML5 debuted. One reason for this decline was that the app had continuing issues with security vulnerabilities. HTML5 allowed users to create animation for the internet without using Flash, and many websites transitioned from Flash to HTML5. 

Finally, in 2016, as Flash became less and less popular, Adobe Flash was renamed Adobe Animate. While Animate continued to support Flash at that time, the name change occurred because Adobe wanted to take the focus off Flash and emphasize the app as an animation tool instead. Adobe ended support for Flash at the end of 2020.

Comparable Applications

Animators work with numerous apps, depending on what they are trying to create. Adobe Animate is one of many computer applications used by Animators. After Effects is another popular animation app and is also part of Adobe’s Creative Cloud. In comparison, Animate is good for designing interactive content, 2D animation, and character animations, and After Effects is used for making motion effects and visual effects or compositing.

Some Animators utilize an app called Cinema 4D Lite. Cinema 4D Lite is a streamlined version of Cinema 4D, a program for modeling, animation, and simulation. It comes free with a subscription to After Effects. Animators can use it to create 3D content and import that content into After Effects projects.

While Animate and After Effects are used to create content, Premiere Pro is a video editing application for assembling content into a finished video. Premiere Pro is also popular with Animators, who use it to cut, enhance, and arrange the content they have already created. Premiere Pro is also an Adobe product, which means that it integrates easily with Animate or After Effects.

Learn Animation & Motion Graphics with Hands-on Training at Noble Desktop

At Noble Desktop, students can learn animation and motion graphics with hands-on classes that fit many schedules and learning styles. Every class is small and interactive and led by expert instructors. In addition, Noble always provides a free retake option. The free retake allows students to retake the same class once within a year without paying for it again. Students can gain additional animation or motion graphics skills using the free retake without investing in another class.

The After Effects Bootcamp is a popular option among students who decide to study animation at Noble Desktop. Students in this bootcamp learn After Effects, a program that professional Animators commonly use, in just 18 hours. Bootcamps like this are popular because they provide quick, intensive training that gives students a good understanding of the subject matter over only a few days. Many pick a bootcamp when they want to add one skill like After Effects to their resume.

However, bootcamps are not the best option for everyone. Some students prefer more in-depth training and opt for a certificate program instead. Certificate programs take longer to complete, but they cover more subject matter. For instance, Nobel’s Motion Graphics Certificate takes two months full-time or four months part-time to finish. During that time, the curriculum covers animation programs, including After Effects, Cinema 4D Lite, and Premiere Pro, and how to use these programs to work on multiple animation projects.

Key Insights

• Adobe Animate is an application used to create 2D animation and interactive vector graphics. 
• Animate allows you a high level of creative freedom in creating and manipulating animations.
• The app is available by monthly subscription.
• Animate was previously known as Adobe Flash.
• Many Animators also use After Effects, Cinema 4D Lite, and Premiere Pro.
• Noble Desktop teaches a number of courses in computer animation and motion graphics. 
• Students can attend live at its New York City facility or enroll in a live online class available from any location.