So, it seems that over the past year, more and more folks have been downgrading Adobe Flash as crap. The iPhone and iPads don't support Flash and most recently, Steve Jobs has published an article defending Apple abandoning it. I realize that he is referring mainly to the use of Flash to design and build websites. I know very little (in fact nothing at all about CSS, HTML5 etc) so I can't really comment on that. However, I've read comments on a few animation blogs by animators talking about how crappy Flash is as well and I figured I would chime in with my two cents on the topic.
Personally, I love using Flash. It has changed my life. It meets just about every criteria for an animation program. It is simple to use, doesn't use up tons of RAM or slow down your computer-allowing you to do long complicated scenes without too many crashes or hang-ups.
The only thing I don't like is that the drawing tools don't produce a very elegant rough line that mimics pencil on paper in the same way that Toonboom software or Photoshop and Sketchbook Pro do. However, in order to get such a line you end up with giant file sizes and slowed performance which for me is a lot worse of a headache. Drawing with the brush tool in Flash is kind of like drawing with a fineline marker which I do on occasion anyway, so it's not that outside of my comfort zone. The other negative to Flash is the lack of a "camera" which means camera moves have to be done in reverse-when you want to zoom in, you have to make the scene larger on the timeline. But, I've been using the program so long now that I'm used to it and it's not really an issue for me.
Another thing that I like about Flash is that it is a relatively cheap program to buy. I am really disappointed with the fact that Toonboom Animate Pro, which I will admit is a great program, is $2000 to buy. That puts it out of reach of a lot of young artists just starting out. Flash costs about a third of that, putting it in the range of most independent artists and animators.
For me animation has always been about experimentation and finding the best tools to do the job and get the best results. I use Photoshop, Flash, Storyboard Pro, Final Cut Pro and After Effects to do my animation. None of these programs alone can give me everything. I use the best and most useful features from each and it I love it. I'll never go back to pencil on paper again. And hopefully my work will be better because of it.
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Animate2 is $700, which is roughly a third of the price of Animate Pro2. That's is the same price as Flash Pro CS5. From the product comparison page on Toonboom (http://www.toonboom.com/products/compare/compare_animation_software.php) you can see that Animate and Animate Pro have nearly identical features. So you don't lose much if you were to buy Animate instead of Animate Pro.
I'm an Toonboom guy. I love Flash for websites and video, but I only tried it once for animation; though, I probably didn't give it a very fair shake. (Flash felt extremely unintuitive for me, Animate did not.)
Toon Boom are offering Animate Pro to students for $60USD through universities, or at least, they are here in Australia. We obviously have a much smaller pool of animation students than the US though, and also fewer resources in our universities (smaller labs, dodgier computers, etc), so I don't know if it's the same everywhere or whether it's a charity act on their behalf towards we unfortunates in the Antipodes. Maybe this means they'll bring their prices down across the board in the future?
It’s nice to hear someone say something positive about Flash!
I completely agree with anyone that says building a website in Flash is a horrible idea, because working in HTML is an infinitely more logical choice for a number of reasons.
But using this type of argument as an excuse to BLOCK CONTENT is beyond absurd.
No one should ever stand in the way of progress, and if something comes along that displaces Flash in the hearts and minds of the masses, then by all means let it become the new standard, but must a new standard mean the destruction of all that came before?
I would hate to think that somewhere out there is my new favorite artist waiting to be discovered and creating work that I would love, but the whims of Steve Jobs is going to make it impossible for me to enjoy that work if his website happens to be Flash based.
Should we expect that the scales will constantly be tipped against the independent artist of the world every few years as some billion dollar company forces them to re-build their entire website and all of the content on it just to remain visible?
The thing that it the most maddening about this “debate” is the fact that so many people are arguing against their own best interest. Who wants LESS things to enjoy on the internet?
And for those that defend the BLOCKING of Flash based entertainment by mentioning how “irritating” they find “those ads”, I feel bad that they will be in for such a rude awakening when they discover the harsh reality that annoying ads are not going anywhere.
It all really all comes down to this… the guy that is selling you the color TV does not want you watch your Black and White episodes of the Honeymooners because it is not in his best interest for one reason or another. That may be fine for HIM, but is that really in YOUR best interest?
amen bro
Great post!(*you KNEW i'd come back, didn't you ;)
I'm not going to trash you man, don't worry. To each their own. If you love Flash, use it! Who cares what others think. They're probably jealous of your work drive and drawing ability(*Just don't let that go to your head)
On a personal level though, I'm actually going BACK to pencil and paper(hear me out!) Mostly cause of the "look" of the line, but also cause I don't want to become a computer drone/slave(*sorry, not a put down on your profile pic) I DO use FLash to assemble all my coloured scanned frames to ultimately export for AfterEffects post.
The cost of Flash(or any other software really) is usually nothing(*I get pirated copies from friends)
Flash is a personal choice. Folks online just want to rant(*heck, sometimes i do) Keep truckin'!
Flash has done me proud, its so easy to pick up and you can effectively teach yourself animation with it.
I moan about it a lot but it is the one program I can point to that has changed my life and career more than any other.
While it is the worst built program I've ever used but it's one of the easiset to master and has helped me no end.
(animator, illustrator)
I concur
Flash is just dandy for me
I agree Nick. Same as you I love Flash and it has changed my life too. The major thing which I don’t like about flash that it is getting useless for animators version by version. And the sad thing is the developers don’t care our taste at all. If we compare all CS versions with Flash 8 I will say FLASH 8 is more handy. CS3 was OK but CS4 is UNBELIEVABLY GROSS! I won’t even dare to try CS5
=(
I'm also very happy using Flash for my own frame-by-frame animation, although my process is admittedly pretty crude-- so far I've just exported everything to video straight from Flash (as opposed to using Premiere, Final Cut, AfterEffects, etc), and it usually gives away which program it was done in. I'm hoping with my next project that using non-vector backgrounds will make it look a bit more like a traditional cartoon, and I'm also considering slightly blurring the footage in Premiere or something to make it look less digital and crisp.
Here's the stuff I'm talking about:
www.youtube.com/aalong64
Nick,
I find it strange that you complain about Animate Pro costing $2k, while at the same time, admitting to using Photoshop, Flash, Storyboard Pro, Final Cut Pro, and After Effects to do your animation. Also, you have a cintiq, correct?
You do realize Animate pro would cost you less than buying all those other programs, right?
Even though you get good results from Flash, it's because of all the other applications you have at your disposal. It doesn't matter that Flash is cheap. You can't get the results that you yourself achieve with Flash by itself.
Artists who only have $600 for Flash are not going to be happy with the results. They either need all those other applications, or just buy Animate Pro, since it will actually be cheaper.
I have a hard time believing that one program can do everything that I need..All of the backgrounds that I have seen done in Animate look really vectory and flat...do you have examples of good stuff?
I am sure that one day I will pick up Animate Pro and like using it...that's not really the issue. I'm not hating on any software or trying to set up an argument about what is better. I'm merely sticking up for a program which I think is really great and is getting a lot of hate dumped on it lately that I think is unfair.
It's really refreshing to hear someone defend Flash for a change. The software usually gets a bad reputation from ignorant people who think it's synonymous with "motion tweening" animation. Tt takes talented folks like yourself to show what Flash can do for traditional animators.
AND it has with real-time playback.
cheers
Pedro
Hey Nick,
Love your work. Flash has changed my life too and it was the reason I got to work at Cartoon Network on Fosters. But they keep making every version of it worse and worse, which is my gripe.
So after I have seen Toon Boom in action, I think that ANimate Pro will change my life again.
I thank Flash for the memories, but Adobe abandoned me, way before I decided to abandon them.
Keep up the great work!
Great post Nick! As always a huge fan of your work! Flash is the only reason we can make cartoons here in New Zealand! Because of the crappy budgets and time-lines we get for projects its the only way we could make anything! We love Flash!
I'm from the school that says: "Use whatever tools work best for YOU. If it ain't broke don't fix it."
So if Flash works for you , keep using it .
For me it's "broke" , so I can't ever get comfortable using Flash to draw.
For me the lack of a sensitive line quality in the drawing tools is the deal-breaker , but that's me.
My concern is Adobe's perceived attitude towards traditional animation-types like me ... I don't get any sense that Adobe is interested in trying to make the Flash drawing tools any more user friendly for traditional animators , even though trad. animators have repeatedly requested more sensitive drawing tools (that mimic real pencils and pens) such as those found in TVPaint , ArtRage, or Sketchbook Pro.
Flash is up to version CS 5 now and the drawing tools still aren't much better than in Flash MX 2004 or Flash 8 (in fact some say they are worse) .
But again, if it works well for you keep using it and don't feel like you have to "defend" your choice of tools. This is no different than the old time traditional animators arguing over which pencil was the "best" pencil . Col-Erase Blue ? Blackwing ? Berol Turquoise 2B ? Dixon Ticonderoga HB ? Who cares. Use what you prefer. Just draw, dammit.
I don't want to bring down anybody animating on flash or toonboom. But the reason why I disaprove of flash or any other computer based software for animating is that it's such an inhuman way to animate. The animation regardless of how smooth and well timed it may be, it feels flatter and stiffer everytime. I tried both toonboom and flash for animting,
(I did prefer Toonboom over Flash)and I felt I was spending more time trying to figure out how to make it look natural or trying to fix some new bug. There some advantages to using flash over the traditional pencil on paper but the price far too great to pay. And I don't want to spend the rest of my life learning about softwares, beacuase a new comes along every few years, I'd rather spend it furthering my drawing and animation skills. I know I'm not alone in this, I know many who feel the same and are just waiting for a good oppurtunity to revive cel animation. But my best wishes to Nick for his outstanding work.
Yep - nothing wrong with Flash at all.
It's a poor tradesman that blames his tools. If people are hating on Flash they've probably either a) never used it or b) wouldn't do any better with any other program.
Folks obsess about tools - when it's about the person using the tool that comes up with the creative ideas and the story.
Love your work.
I'm pretty late to the discussion here, but I thought I'd chime in anyway. I came into using Flash during the original MX version, and moved up to the CS4 version when that came out. I haven't found too many things made worse in the newer rev, and a couple useful additions, but it's mostly the same for my uses.
I'm sure I waste a lot of time tweaking the brush line smoother, I wish it was able to stick close to what I draw yet keep it smoother to begin with, but apart from that I have no real complaints about it.
The majority of dissent placed on Flash comes from all the skewing and tweening being used to save time that give it away so easily. I try to avoid that, since it is quite capable of frame-by-frame animations. As long as enough work is put into it, you can do 24 fps with no problem.
On its own, Flash won't really let you get a classic cartoon look. Used along side Photoshop and After Effects, you should be able to achieve pretty much any kind of cell animation look. Bring the swf files into after effects and use any backgrounds you want.
I tried a Toonboom trial a few versions ago, but it didn't seem as easy to get into, and I didn't do much with it before the trail expired. I can't fairly compare them as a result, but I can say if you're able to put in the work to get around the imprecise drawing tools, you can do any kind of 2D animation without any tell-tale "Flash-iness"
TVPaint has a lot of cool animation features to paint, coloring and manager layers, strokes... And many more
What do you think about TVPaint?
I've never tried TVPaint...do they make it for the mac?
I love flash, but about price... Outside USa flash costs twice as much so toonboom animateis cheaper.
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