Flash is dead, long live Adobe Animate CC

Alongside a host of new features for its CC applications, today Adobe has announced that it’s finally killing Flash…sort of.

Flash is being repurposed as Animate CC, a brand new solution for animation on the Web, that will be more than a little familiar to anyone who’s used the erstwhile darling of the hipster designer.

Flash was doomed the moment Apple chose not to support it on the iPhone but it has continued to be used by the advertising industry because it packed assets, animation, and code, into a single embeddable package. However, the recent rise in ad blockers, repeated security issues, and the ongoing lack of mobile support has finally pushed Flash over the edge.

Flash has always had something of an identity crisis, with Adobe eventually branding the app as ‘Flash Professional’ to distinguish it from the Flash Player, and Flash Builder. This latest name change makes absolute sense: with Flash generally perceived as a toxic brand by both designers and business owners, the only surprise is that Adobe didn’t make this break earlier.

Flash already features HTML5 Canvas and WebGL support, and Animate CC will continue to support SWF and AIR formats; so no changes there. However, there will be a series of new features added before the release date in early 2016, which include:

  • export for SVG animation;
  • 4k+ video support;
  • vector art brushes;
  • colored onion skinning;
  • rotatable canvas;
  • deep integration with Adobe Stock;
  • integration with shared libraries.

The community response to the news has so far been cautiously optimistic.

http://polarb.com/232636

Ben Moss

Ben Moss

Ben is a former contributor to WDD.

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