Adobe officially launched Animate CC, the latest version of its animation tool for the web. Animate CC was previously known as Flash Professional, but the importance of Flash has (thankfully) declined over the last few years and the company decided it was time to rename the product to better represent what it is actually being used for.
For nearly two decades, Flash Professional has been the standard for producing rich animations on the web. Because of the emergence of HTML5 and demand for animations that leverage web standards, we completely rewrote the tool over the past few years to incorporate native HTML5 Canvas and WebGL support. To more accurately represent its position as the premier animation tool for the web and beyond, Flash Professional will be renamed Adobe Animate CC, starting with the next release in early 2016. [Update 2/8: Animate CC is now here!]
With Animate CC, Adobe has not just changed the name but also integrated a number of new features into the tool. For the most part, these bring it in line with the rest of its Creative Cloud lineup. New features in Animate CC include support for Creative Cloud Libraries for sharing content between the different CC apps and with other users, for example, as well as built-in Adobe Stock and Typekit support. Animators can now also export their videos in 4K.
what you can expect in Animate CC:
- Drawing, illustration and authoring
- Vector art brushes – Modify the path of a stroke after it’s been drawn, and scale them to any resolution without losing quality. You can also make custom brushes and import brushes created with Adobe Capture CC.
- 360° rotatable canvas – Rotate the canvas on any pivot point as you draw to get the perfect angle and strokes. You can even use this feature with a Wacom Cintiq!
- Improved pencils and brushes – Draw smooth, precise vector outlines along a curve and get faster live previews.
- Easier audio syncing – Control audio looping directly on the timeline, without having to code.
- Faster color changing – Naming tagged colors lets you change one color and have it automatically update your entire project.
- Colored onion skinning – Easily orchestrate complex animations now that adjacent frames can have different color and alpha values.
- CreativeSync integration
- Adobe Stock – Browse and license millions of high-quality photos, illustrations and vector graphics directly in Animate CC. You can even add life to static content by adding animations to them.
- Creative Cloud Libraries – Access colors, vector graphics and brushes directly as you work.
- [Update 2/8: We’ve also added Typekit integration!]
- Output capabilities
- Multiplatform support: HTML5 Canvas, WebGL, Flash (SWF), AIR, video, and custom platforms (such as SVG) via extensions.
- 4K+ video export – Export videos with custom resolutions for the latest Ultra HD and Hi-DPI displays.
- Custom resolution export – Revitalize older content by resizing and optimizing them for any resolution, such as Ultra HD and Hi-DPI displays.
- .OAM support – Export your project as an .OAM file for easy importing to Adobe Muse, InDesign, DPS and Dreamweaver.
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