So how do the Blender 2D tools compare to Adobe Animate?

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I’m sort of acquainted with Animate because long ago I took an interest in Flash. I never had time to do much with it (though I still have my copy of Flash CS3 around:grin:).

I don’t have Blender 2.8 yet (because the courses I’m currently walking through use 2.7 and my current computer can’t handle 2.8). But I plan to install 2.8 on my new computer when I get one.

Anyway – my question: Are Blender 2D tools much of a threat to Adobe Animate?

I hear 2.8 now has “fill” tools for coloring line art, which was one huge thing 2.7 was missing…

And given that Blender’s 3D tools make drawing perspectives & angles relatively easy (which can translate to 2D animation), I’m guessing that Blender 2D tools have Adobe quaking in its boots.

The Adobe suite does have Character Animator, however, with its motion-capture tools… Haven’t seen anything like that from Blender so far… :thinking:

…So what do you think? Will Blender 2D tools be a threat to the Adobe Animate market?

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Blender’s “fill” tool, btw:

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Are you saying that Blender 2.8 exports to HTML 5??!!

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you know good and well he isnt saying that…

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First you would have to define the market Animate CC is used for, because Animate not only is used for broadcast animation, but also for animated web banners, and web games. Even mobile platforms app development with Air.

When we limit this discussion to pure broadcast 2d animation production and 2d feature animation production, Adobe has more to fear from Toonboom Harmony and TVPaint, the open sourced OpenToonz, and CelAction 2D (of Peppa pig fame), Moho Pro. Blender’s 2d animation is the new kid on the block.

Fact is that even if Toonboom had paid Adobe to ruin Flash/Animate as a tool for broadcast and feature film 2d animation, they couldn’t have done a better job. In the past Flash was one of the standard weapons in this market, but Adobe allowed Flash to wither and put it on life support for a long time.

Only these past few years has Adobe invested any real effort in Animate/Flash to improve its market value as an animation tool. The trouble is that the latest versions are…

Well, pretty crap.

Performance of 2d animation in Animate CC has gone down the drain, and the new animation tools introduced in the latest two versions are buggy, limited, and really alpha quality to be very kind. The bone tool has been broken and useless for production since its very inception.

Right now the best version of Flash/Animate is surprisingly Flash CS6, with the addition of the excellent free and open source Flanimate character animation tools. CS6 has by far the best performance for animation.

(Look for the Flanimate tools here: https://flash-powertools.com/ Great set of tools for professional animators looking to do their animation in Flash/Animate.)

The trouble is, Adobe made it extremely difficult for animators to access older versions, if not impossible: this year Adobe decided that their users no longer will have access to any version older than the latest two releases. Which effectively killed access to the superior CS6 version.

And believe you me when I tell you how unbelievably crap the latest version is (CC 2019).

For these and many other reasons (support, for example) most animation studios doing 2d animation that used to produce with Flash have switched to other alternatives. More often than not a combination of tools is used, and not just a single one. For example, Futurama was produced with the commercial version of OpenToonz with some IK-based cutout character work finished in Moho Pro.

It also depends on the type of animation: hand-drawn frame-by-frame is often done with the help of TV Paint. Various Japanese studios use OpenToonz in combination with ClipStudio Paint. Toonboom rules the Western side of 2d broadcast animation production (Disney, for example).

But Blender’s 2d/3d animation combo is making waves here and there in this industry. For example, the Japanese studio Khara behind Evangelion made the switch to Blender.

Anyway, what I am trying to say here: Flash/Animate CC is, for the most part, already a somewhat marginalized tool in today’s 2d animation industry. And Adobe itself is responsible for mismanaging that aspect and market of Flash, although they are trying to improve Animate and recapture part of the 2d broadcast animation market. But too little, too late, in my opinion. A futile attempt. Too much water under the bridge.

Flash had the momentum going for it in the 2d broadcast animation market, but Adobe lost it.

Now, as for a direct comparison between Blender with its new 2d animation capabilities and Animate CC? Well, Blender wins 9 out of 10. There really is no comparison, not with grease pencil improving at the rate it is (2.81!) and the seamless 2d/3d workflow, compositor, effects, and so on. And Blender does perfect 2d cut out FK/IK-based character animation as well.

But Flash/Animate is much easier to get along with initially for 2d animators.

Animate CC will never recapture its former glory in this market. But it is still a capable tool for 2d animation with the help of plugins like Flanimate.

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Is there any open source tool comparable to it? One which exports to HTML 5, I mean? (and allows you to define “clickability”, ie. “if this is clicked then that will happen”, and so on…?)

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You’re right – I hadn’t thought about that, nor all the HTML5 uses that Herbert123 mentions. :thinking:

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Wow – great, in-depth answer. Sounds like you really know your stuff. Thanks for the background info on the fortunes of Animate. :+1::+1:

I hadn’t even considered all the web uses that Animate is good for… but on the other hand, are animated web banners and web games still very relevant?

(Maybe I’m out of touch because I use Adblocker and haven’t played an online game since the heyday of Flash… :older_adult:)

I guess Animate’s utility for creating mobile and desktop apps is probably important too.

Regarding pure 2D animation – Yes, I remember back in the day I would often read about studios producing their 2D animation in Flash. I would’ve guessed that these animators just continued into Animate, but I guess not.

The more I read about these other tools however, the more I like Blender. The ability to use 3D models to create perspective art for 2D will probably be a pretty big deal going forward. Can’t wait to have a look at the Blender 2D interface for myself!

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Godot can do that.

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Are you saying Blender 2D concatenated with Godot can achieve the same things as Animate??!!

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Tbh. I have no experience in Animate. But Godot can export to HTML 5 by it’s very nature as a game engine interactivity is a no brainer. Maybe you can get a bit more explicit about what you want to make…

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Er - 2D interactive websites! (amongst other things!)

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Yes Godot can do that. But it might be a good amount of overhead. I think it’s strongly dependent on the project. That said interactivity in plain HTML 5 isn’t that complicated. The canvas element is pretty powerful. Based on your needs it’s just a few hours of learning.

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I just prefer a GUI environment when I’m making a website - an artistic one.

Any idea how good Armory fares in this regard??

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No, never used Armory either. I have the impression, Godot is more mature.

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I’ll go over to the site and look sometime - but can you just tell me what language, if any, it uses to script/program within it??

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I am guessing that what Godot exports as html5 is not the same as what Animate can. As far as I know Godot does web assembly, and I doubt that that is what Animate does. However I never used Animate.

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That’s what I meant with overhead. For it’s goals as a game engine it’s appropriate. But might not be for ‘just’ a website.
@justwannapost Godot uses a language called GDscript for logic. It’s very similar to Python.