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What is Adobe Animate?
Adobe Animate, or Adobe Flash as it used to be called till 2020, is a software that will let you 2D animate different characters and looks for different purposes.
With Animate, Adobe added some extra features that make an animator’s job a lot easier when they choose to work on it.
Adobe Animate has been used by a lot of people in the industry for various different animations related to movies, shows, and other projects as well.
But, like always, there are plenty of different alternatives available right now that will provide you with some of the features and more that you get on Animate.
Reason to look for sites like Adobe Animate
Reason 1 – Uses Vector graphic
Raster and Vector are concepts that a lot of designers would be familiar with. Basically, the difference between the two is that Vector graphics are mathematical, because of which they cannot be pixelated.
Raster, on the other hand, can get pixelated if you zoom in after its limits, and Adobe Animate uses only Vector graphics.
This may not seem like an issue for animators, but there are quite a lot of animators who do like to use Raster graphics that they won’t be able to get on Adobe Animate.
Reason 2 – Lack of 3D cameras
Adobe Animate doesn’t have any 3D cameras in its software, and many artists and animators around the world have shared their concerns about this topic as it seems like a great tool missing from an application that does a lot of things right.
And a 3D camera can be quite useful to many animators to tell the stories that they are trying to make on Adobe Animate as it helps with the overall storytelling. If that is something that you are looking for, you won’t be getting that on Animate.
Reason 3 – Expensive
Adobe Animate is a bit expensive, granted it does offer a lot, and for some people, that is quite good as well, but if you are someone who is just starting out in the world of animation, then $21/month could be steep for you.
Because with $21/month, there are some other apps available, about which we’ll talk about fairly soon, that will give you the basic notes that you have been wanting to learn about the world of Animation and the overall ways you can use Animate.
Best Adobe Animate Alternatives
Toon Boom Harmony
Toon Boom Harmony is considered one of the best animation applications present in the market, and it is also used by a lot of professional Hollywood studios as well.
Toon Boom offers a wide array of different functionalities and options for animation and animating different characters for your projects.
There are also a good amount of other things to discuss Toon Boom Harmony, so let’s get started.
What we liked about Toon Boom Harmony
Toon Boom Harmony offers a wide variety of features that can be quite useful for any animator. It has features like Onion-skin, which you do also get on Adobe Animate, wherein you can see the action of your object in different keyframes.
You can also have many different exports and import files running on Toon Boom Harmony’s app, and it will read all the files type as it is.
Then you can also do Animation pegs on Toon Boom Harmony, where the software understands to automatically cover up frames between two keyframes.
What we didn’t like about Toon Boom Harmony
Toon Boom Harmony doesn’t support any audio files on its software, which you actually get on Adobe Animate, and if you would want to have an audio file then you would have to use an external app for it.
And that is a bummer because a lot of animators do prefer listening to audio with their animation to give a sense of how the entire project is looking and feeling.
You also don’t get any pre-designed characters in the app, you have to build all the characters from the ground up, and that is up to you if you are comfortable with this or not.
Why did we choose Toon Boom Harmony as an Adobe Animate alternative?
Toon Boom Harmony is considered one of the best animating applications in the business, and you should know about it if this is the first time you are learning about it.
Its starting price is also a bit similar to Adobe Animate, where you have to pay $25/month for it; it’s not cheap, but with the number of features you are getting on it, the price is pretty justified.
And the overall performance and flexibility of Animate are something that exceeds Adobe Animate as a whole as well.
Review and rating of Toon Boom Harmony
Toon Boom Harmony can be a great option for you if you are looking for an alternative that is actually better than Adobe Animate.
You get dozens of different features and functionalities, and tools on it that would make any animator happy, and you would be too if you give it a try.
I would be rating Toon Boom Harmony, based on its reviews and functionalities, 4/5 stars.
Krita
Krita is an open-sourced alternative to Adobe Animate, which you can try out if you are just starting in the world of Animation and don’t want to spend a whole lot on an application.
As you would have guessed, Krita being open-sourced means that the app is free to use for anyone, and you wouldn’t be required to sign up as well.
There are also a number of great things that a lot of animators would appreciate about Krita, so without wasting a lot of time, here are some of the things that I liked and disliked about Krita.
What we liked about Krita
Krita will offer you a number of features that you might already familiarise with or would be knowing about if you know about Adobe Animate. So you get features like Onion skinning, which is a feature that is quite handy for any animator.
You also have a number of different preloaded brushes on Krita that would enhance a lot of sketches and drawings of the animations, and it is also something that many artists would appreciate.
And the overall app being open-sourced already translates to a free site to use without any sign-up required as well, and that is something that a lot of beginner animators would like.
What we didn’t like about Krita
Krita does have the option of adding the audio, but it is usually during the editing process, and this could make syncing lips to the audio very hard for the animators as well.
And exporting the files which you have made on Krita is also reported to have some issues, and many users have faced problems in exporting their content from Krita.
Krita also focuses on only vector graphics and no raster graphics, and some animators would find trouble using it.
Why did we choose Krita as an Adobe Animate alternative?
Krita is a great option for people who are starting new in the world of animation and don’t want to step into an industry-standard tool immediately that can be a bit complicated to understand and use.
And if you are someone who finds Adobe Animate a bit intimidating, then Krita can be a great place for you to start your animating career because it does offer functionality that you can expect on Animate, but for free!
Review and rating of Krita
Krita is also a famous tool, and many industry experts do use it for some work here and there. It is a great place for starting and learning a lot about animation and how all you can use it and go about it.
It has a great UI that is not super confusing to use and understand, and you can also learn a lot of things about it as there are a number of different tutorials on it available online.
I would be rating Krita 3.5/5 stars!
Synfig Studio
Synfig Studio is also another example of a free alternative to Adobe Animate that you can try out today. It also offers a number of different tools for you to express your creativity and stretch your creative juices.
Through Synfig Studio, you are able to make animated films and many animated objects which can be used for any other media and shared on different platforms as well.
There are also a number of different things to discuss about Synfig Studio, so without wasting a lot of time, here are some of the great things about Synfig Studio.
What we liked about Synfig Studio
Synfig Studio is free software to use, and that has to be considered one of its great points because it does offer a wide variety of different tools for free, which could really benefit a lot of artists.
Synfig Studio also has a plugin that automatically syncs your character’s voice to your character’s movement, and that is a great tool for any animator as it does save a lot of time for them.
And getting such a feature like this free of cost is a great initiative from Synfig Studio, and it must be appreciated.
What we didn’t like about Synfig Studio
Synfig Studio has reported crashes a lot of times if you overload the site with a lot of data and commands, and since it doesn’t auto-save any of the work on it, many customers have lost all of their hard work because of the crash.
That is a problematic error that Synfig Studio should quickly fix on its site. Another problem with Synfig Studio is that there aren’t many tutorials about it online.
And that is also problematic since any person who is starting new on this medium will face a lot of issues that would make his/her work even more difficult.
Why did we choose Synfig Studio as an Adobe Animate alternative?
Synfig Studio is also a great alternative to Adobe Animate, where you will get the tools that you might be getting on Animate and more.
The site is completely free to use, and that is a great advantage for Synfig because if you are someone who is new in the world of animation, this could be one of the places where you can start from.
Although you have to be careful about the various crashes that this site sees.
Review and rating of Synfig Studio
Synfig Studio will offer you a bunch of different functionalities that will be quite helpful for a lot of people to use, and animators would really like it for that as well.
You have to try it out for yourself and see if it is something that you could work with or if it is a bit complicated for you to use.
Either way, for now, I would be rating Synfig Studio 3.5/5 stars.
CACANi
CACANi is a fairly new animation application that was launched in 2017, mostly for hand-drawn animators. CACANi offers a wide variety of features that assist animators in many different ways.
There are a bunch of different things about CACANi to discuss, some of them would surely bum some people out, but as an overall package, it can be a great tool for animators in general.
So without delaying a lot, here are some of the things that I liked about CACANi and some of the things that I disliked about CACANi.
What we liked about CACANi
CACANi is built with thinking about hand-dawing animators, and because of this, it does have different features that a lot of them would appreciate.
On CACANi, you have features like assisted painting system that would allow you to automate your animation process by simply feeding the details of one of the frames that you made to the other frames.
There are many different drawing tools available on CACANi that make the free-hand drawing experience a lot less hectic for the animators.
What we didn’t like about CACANi
CACANi is currently only available on Windows and not for Mac, and that would surely bum a lot of Mac animators because that is also a popular medium for many animators.
CACANi’s price range is similar to Adobe Animate, where you can get it for $20/month, but if you are looking to buy this program for your team, then it can turn out to be an expensive option as you have to pay around $800 Dollars for a team of four people!
Why did we choose CACANi as an Adobe Animate alternative?
CACANi is a great option for animators who mostly hand draw their projects frame-by-frame, and with the tools that are on display for CACANi, it could be quite helpful and useful for them, in general.
It also allows you to make many different types of characters, thanks to the number of different drawing tools it has available in its tools list.
Review and rating of CACANi
CACANi is a good alternative to Adobe Animate if you can get around its expensive plan for the Teams pack, and only available for Windows devices.
Because those two points can turn down some of the animators, and if you are someone whom these points concern, then sadly, CACANi wouldn’t be for you.
But for the rest, you can try CACANi and see if you like it or not. I would be rating CACANi 3.5/5 stars.
Blender
Blender is also quite a popular option in the world of animations, and many people do use this program in the industry as well, and you can also see its work on some Hollywood films as well.
Blender is also a community-based software that has many different people from different fields of work, always contributing something towards the making of the app.
The app has a lot of great things about it, and without wasting a lot of time around it, here are things that I liked and disliked about it.
What we liked about Blender
Blender is completely free to use, and you won’t have to pay anything to use this service whatsoever. On Blender, you can also automatically sync the audio, and that is always a welcomed addition for animators.
Blender also has Shape Keys in its software that allows animators to make unique, realistic expressions for their characters without doing a lot of it manually and consuming their time.
It also has many shortcut keys that you can use to make the whole process of animation that much quicker and smoother to use.
What we didn’t like about Blender
Blender doesn’t report many complaints from its users, but you can always find some things to point out that can be nitpicky as well.
Blender does tend to crash sometimes when the projects get a bit heavy, and that can be quite dangerous for any person, regardless if they are animators or not, and that is an issue you can face on Blender.
There are also many different keys on its UI, and the entire UI can be a bit difficult to read.
Why did we choose Blender as an Adobe Animate alternative?
Blender is quite popular in the world of animation, and you would have very easily heard about its name if you are remotely interested in the world of animation or animating anything.
It has a great list of features on its list that you can use for free, and many people contribute many great features to it as well.
Plus, the app is also free to use, so you won’t be paying anything to use this service except for your time, and that is time well spent.
Review and rating of Blender
Blender is a great alternative to Adobe Animate, and many people in the industry do use this service for animating and doing a whole lot of different things on it as well.
It is overall a great service to work out, and if you are someone who is interested in using it, then you should definitely give it a try.
I would be rating Blender 4/5 stars.
Wick Editor
Wick Editor is a software that is designed for mostly teaching people about the basics of animation, and it is a flash-based software that works mostly online for animating games and characters.
There are a number of different things about Wick Editor to discuss, so without wasting a lot of time here and some of the things that I liked and disliked about it.
What we liked about Wick Editor
Wick Editor is basically a website for learning animation for free, and that is a great thing about it, to begin with. You don’t have a wide variety of different tools that you might get on other apps, but they are still quite sufficient.
You also don’t have to install an app to access its service, you can easily do it from your browser as well, and you would get everything that it has to offer.
There are also a number of links and content available online guiding people to use Wick Editor.
What we didn’t like about Wick Editor
Wick Editor’s biggest complaint can be that it is quite basic and moderate compared to other great animating apps that are listed on this list.
You will not find great features like automatic sync and various different drawing tools on Wick Editor, and because of that, many people would not appreciate it.
Why did we choose Wick Editor as an Adobe Animate alternative?
Wick Editor is a good alternative for those who are looking to learn animation from scratch and don’t want to step directly into the world of Adobe Animate.
There are a number of different things that Adobe has, and Wick isn’t even trying to compete directly with it as well.
If anything, it is actually motivating animators to learn basic animation so that they can move on to other great animating apps like Adobe.
Review and rating of Wick Editor
Wick Editor is a great service if you are a beginner in the world of animation and want to start from the bottom. There are a number of different inks available that will help you with this app.
For that reason, I would be rating Wick Editor 3/5 stars.
Our recommendations on the best Adobe Animate alternative?
Well, there you have it! Six of the best alternatives to Adobe Animate you can currently find online are suited for different purposes and people.
As much as I appreciate animated content and animated films, I know that there’s a lot of time and patience that goes into creating anything that is animated. But, I am not someone who is into the world of animation.
This is why I won’t be choosing any particular animating app as the best alternative to Adobe Animate.
Why did we choose None of the above as the best Adobe Animate alternative?
All the above-mentioned apps have different target audiences set in their mind for their product. You have to see for yourself which one you fit the best.
As always, these have been my list of alternatives which I think are a great list of alternatives to Adobe Animate.
But what about you? What do you think about these alternatives, and do you think I missed some other alternatives? Do let us know about it in the comments down below!
