Why doesn't Adobe put out a specialised 2D animation tool?

Rudiger · Post by **Rudiger** » Fri May 14, 2010 7:29 am

Does anyone else wish that Adobe would combine cut-down versions of Illustrator, Flash, After Effects, and Photoshop into a totally kick-ass 2D animation tool? It just seems that the market is bigger than the number of available products would suggest, and each of Adobe's existing products could contribute some already very developed tools to such an application.

GCharb · Post by **GCharb** » Fri May 14, 2010 2:21 pm

Rudiger wrote:Does anyone else wish that Adobe would combine cut-down versions of Illustrator, Flash, After Effects, and Photoshop into a totally kick-ass 2D animation tool? It just seems that the market is bigger than the number of available products would suggest, and each of Adobe's existing products could contribute some already very developed tools to such an application.

That's a bit what ToonBoom does, with a price tag going with it.

Animate 2 = $699
Animate 2 Pro = $1999
Harmony = $8000+

Those are great tools with great drawing, compositing, collaboration and fx tools, but darn expensive for most people.

If Adobe would go with a mix of their video production apps, the cost would be high as well, in my opinion.

But I like the idea!

G

jwlane · Post by **jwlane** » Fri May 14, 2010 3:08 pm

Actually, I was just going to post the following relative question, has anyone here used Photoshop CS5 extended yet? I'm wondering about the animation tools for drawing frame by frame.

GCharb · Post by **GCharb** » Fri May 14, 2010 3:11 pm

I had a look at PS CS5 animation, not bad but limited, like their 3D toolset. No color registration, for one, and it is raster only, no vector there!

G

cluk-eroZ · Post by **cluk-eroZ** » Tue May 18, 2010 8:14 am

weren't u playing with the fish in anime studio!

crsP · Post by **crsP** » Tue May 18, 2010 9:53 am

Adobe did produce a 2d animation program called Livemotion. It was to be a competitor to Flash [before they bought Macromedia out]. At the time it was more intuitive for animating [could just be my opinion, but I didn't have to look at a single tutorial to make an animation, unlike with Flash]. Apparently it wasn't much competition for Flash [in terms of sales] so they dropped it, and then bought Macromedia afterwards. Unlike Toonboom, Livemotion also had the interactive element like Flash. Maybe they've incorporate some of the ease of use in Livemotion into Flash, but I haven't used it lately so I don't know. Certainly I noticed that only now in CS5 Illustrator has incorporated the perspective tool that was in Freehand MX, so Adobe doesn't seem to be in any rush these days. Hopefully this new war of words between them and Apple will ignite the competitive fire they once have, but now lack due to no serious competition. That includes The Gimp. he