We were pretty impressed with Adobe Animate when we looked at the animation app just over a year ago. It's a clever repurposing of Macromedia’s defunct Flash technology, turning it into a useful and fun 2D animation tool. Has a year brought in any new and interesting advances? We put the latest version of the animation software to the test.  

Adobe Animate: Pricing & plans

• Expensive software to rent on its own, but it you already subscribe to Adobe’s Creative Cloud, then you essentially get it for free.

As with most of Adobe’s professional apps, Animate is available through either a standalone subscription or as part of Creative Cloud All Apps. Subscriptions are available as annual, monthly, or annual billed monthly (contract) plans. 

If you use three or more different Adobe apps, then the Creative Cloud option will provide a bit more value for money here, as it bundles Animate alongside other top tools like Photoshop, After Effects. and Premiere Pro.  There is no free trial of Animate, but you can cancel your subscription anytime within the first 14 days to get a full refund.

We’ve explored the different costs and discounts in our guide Download Animate: How to try Adobe Animate for free or with Creative Cloud 

• Pricing & plans: 4/5 

Adobe Animate: How it works

• A highly versatile way to easily animate 2D objects, even those not designed for animation - and it’s great fun to use.

Adobe Animate is a good and fun app to perform anything from quick to highly complex 2D animations, either using existing artwork or creating it right from within the app itself. Not to be confused with Adobe’s simple 2D digital puppeteering app, Character Animator. 

In Animate, you have complete freedom to use the software as you see fit, such as drawing each frame manually, or use the motion tween tool to automate the process (while removing a bit of individuality from the process).

In order to get started, you’re offered a series of templates, from standard 16:9 resolutions, to banner ads, various social media platforms, game consoles, web pages, the list is impressive, but if none of that suits, you’re free to customize your canvas however you see fit.

All the tools you’d expect to animate anything are there, such as keyframes, onion skinning, the works. The flexibility is quite impressive, giving you a lot of freedom when it comes to creating unique shapes, but the part we liked the best is the app’s Asset Warp tool. This allows you to add motion to an object that wasn’t originally designed for such a process - like a photo of a figurine on a transparent background, for instance. This exoskeleton informs Animate how the object’s various sections are connected to each other, enabling you to move them… within limits: if the angle means you can’t fully see one of the figure’s limbs, this method won’t magically make it appear; you can animate what you see. Nothing’s stopping you however from creating that limb from scratch, connecting that creation to the photo and controlling its movements.

When it comes to exporting your work, you’ve got a handful of options, namely sharing it directly to YouTube and Twitter (yes, at the time of review, the software still calls it Twitter), or exporting it as an .mp4 or .gif file, which you can then use anywhere you wish.

• How it works: 4.5/5 

Adobe Animate: New features

• Welcome improvements for sure, but the list is very paltry, and what’s actually changed, although ok, doesn’t feel like it’s worth a full numbered version upgrade. 

Animate was already surprisingly versatile and powerful as it previously was, so what wonders did Adobe introduce with the latest major upgrade? Well, it may depend on which platform you’re using the software on: there are three updates being advertised, the first of which is native Apple Silicon support. 

That’s right: Animate works natively on all the best MacBook Pro laptops and Macs with M1 to M3 chips. According to the advertising, not only will this lead to smoother drawing when compared with Intel Macs, but the app itself will launch faster, your project will export up to twice as fast, and your timeline will playback up to three times as fast. Very welcome, especially for professional creatives, but nothing to get too excited about. After all, the original M1 chip was introduced in November 2020. That’s a long time to wait for a native app from one of the most successful professional software developers in the world. Still, it’s here now, so mustn’t grumble, I guess.

Next up, is a “sleek user interface”. Hearing about this got us pretty excited. After all, Animate’s previous interface was excellent, and extremely customizable, letting you tear off tabs, keep them as floating windows, or dock them elsewhere in the interface. But there’s always room for improvement. So what did they give us? We have to admit, we had to look pretty closely and make sure we were actually running the latest version. Essentially, all the windows are slightly more compressed, leaving more room for the main preview section, helping you focus more easily on what you’re designing. Again, this is great, but the change is subtle. Put the previous interface next to the current one, and it might take you a few seconds to figure out which is which. But more room to preview your work can only be a good thing.

And our third tentpole new feature is the ability to reset a Warp Asset. Warp Assets are the secret sauce behind Animate’s ability to give motion to still images that weren’t initially designed for movement. Once you’ve created a skeleton frame of sorts, you can stretch and bend your image to give it the illusion that it’s moving. Subtle changes are usually best so as not to distort the image too much, which would make the motion feel unnatural, but how far is too far? There’s always been the potential for concern to experiment too much, and then having to manually move the frame back to its original settings. Until now. Thanks to this latest version, you can find the ‘Reset Warped Asset’ button to the right of a selected object’s ‘Warp Options’, in the Properties’ Object tab.

These really feel like very minor improvements, hardly worthy of a full version number upgrade. However, this shouldn’t detract you from the appeal of an app that was already pretty excellent to begin with - overall, one of the best animation software we’ve tried.

• New features: 3/5 

Adobe Animate: Scorecard

Should I buy?

Buy it if...

You need to animate static objects in 2D, you need something that’s powerful yet easy to use, with a bunch of original tools, and ideally you already subscribe to Adobe’s Creative Cloud.

Don't buy it if...

 You’re not already an Adobe subscriber, or you want even more control over effects, as in After Effects or any of the best Adobe After Effects alternatives. 

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Adobe Creative Cloud is the hub of your Adobe existence. This is where you can launch any Adobe app you’ve installed on your computer (probably the most superfluous feature in its arsenal), where you can find and install new ones, review any files you’ve saved on Adobe Cloud. It's also a space where you can find tutorials for top Adobe apps, and browse the stock media libraries of Adobe Stock. The interface has had a major makeover since we last reviewed the app, so we thought it was time to delve back in there and see how this nexus of activity works in 2024.

Adobe Creative Cloud: Pricing & plans

• Creative Cloud itself is free, but you need it to manage your other Adobe software, and for that, you need a subscription. It’s not cheap, but it might offer value for money. 

In and of itself, this software is free. You will need an Adobe ID to make use of it, but that’s also free. After that, you have to choose a subscription plan to grant you access to some, most or all of Adobe’s portfolio. The prices vary depending on whether you’re an individual, in education, or a business, but for illustrative purposes, we’ll be looking at costs for individuals here. 

Most apps, the top of the line ones such as Photoshop and Premiere Pro, will each cost you $23 per month. There is some fluctuation though: Adobe Acrobat Pro is $20, Adobe Express $10. If you want access to most of Adobe’s portfolio via its ‘all apps’ package, you can do so for $60 a month.

These prices are for what Adobe calls ‘annual billed monthly’. This is effectively a 12-month contract, paid each month. Monthly subscriptions are available, but are more expensive. Annual upfront subscriptions are the cheapest way to access Creative Cloud. Certain apps offer you a free trial, but you can also get a refund, as long as you cancel your subscription within 14 days.

• Pricing & plans: 4/5

Adobe Creative Cloud: The Apps

• This is the core of the app’s purpose, and it does a fantastic job at managing your software. You can install new ones, delete others, and update them all, in a very easy to use interface.

Adobe Creative Cloud has evolved since we last visited it. Everything feels more streamlined, which makes it easier for you to find what you’re after. For instance, the sidebar’s main focus used to be on categories, letting you choose ‘Photography’, or ‘Video’, or ‘3D' for instance. There was also a dedicated Fonts section there, which was superfluous since you also had a Font button top right of the interface. So gone is the old sidebar, and in with the new.

You now start with a Home button, showing you pre-assigned shortcuts to apps you’ve installed on your machine (this is customisable), followed by current information about relevant apps, a view of the latest files you’ve stored on Adobe Cloud, and quick links to Adobe Express, and Firefly - the AI art generator and assistant that’s infused across Adobe products.

Next is ‘Apps’, where you may well be spending most of your time. Here, you can manage all your available Adobe software, from installing new ones, to removing others, and keeping them all up to date. 

We appreciate the fact you have full control over such updates, from manually choosing what gets updated, to letting Creative Cloud download and install everything as it gets released. When it comes to major updates, you can also choose to keep the old version as you install a new one, a crucial feature if you’re currently working on a project, and don’t want to risk the new changes unintentionally messing up your work, while also staying up to date.

• The apps: 5/5

Adobe Creative Cloud: Tutorials

• Having a place where you can learn more about some of Adobe’s apps is most welcome - but links force you out of the app and into your web browser.

The ‘Discover’ section isn’t new. In fact, it had its own menu top left of the interface in the previous version, although that menu was pretty subtle and easily missed. Now however, it’s much more front and centre, having its own dedicated space on the left sidebar. This makes it much easier to find and explore.

Seven apps are covered, including Acrobat, Photoshop, Premiere Pro, and Adobe InDesign, and through Discover, you get access to video tutorials, tips and tricks articles. You can also get support from Adobe’s community. Although most videos and live streams can be accessed from within the Creative Cloud interface, clicking on the other two will take you out of this software, and into your web browser. It’s not ideal, and we did find it somewhat disruptive, but the concept and (most of) the implementation is fine. 

• Tutorials: 3/5

Adobe Creative Cloud: Stock media

• The ‘Stock & Marketplace’ section looks great and appears to be full of features, yet everything you click on just takes you to your web browser. 

Another important facet of Creative Cloud is its link to Adobe Stock. Click on ‘Stock & Marketplace' to be graced with a busy interface. You’ve got tabs at the top representing various categories, such as Photos, Audio, Templates and Plugins, followed further down by a large search field with the ability to filter your results, and after that, a long list of featured items, represented by large thumbnails.

All this sounds great, but it’s all just a veneer: no matter what you type on, you’ll be taken to a new page in your web browser. Even the search field is window dressing, and typing anything in it also directs to the browser. It’s not the most user-friendly interaction, forcing you to juggle between two apps. Because of this, it feels unfinished, like one of those old Western movie towns, where everything is just facades of buildings, with nothing behind them.

All in all, Creative Cloud is most useful to keep track of the Adobe apps you’ve installed on your computer, but there are other features which could make it attractive for those seeking information and new media for their project. It’s a shame though that more often than not, Creative Cloud will still take you to a web browser, which is never an ideal interaction. Still, it’s an improvement over the previous version, and the sidebar, and the layout of the information is better than ever. It’s an invaluable control centre for Adobe’s apps, but it could be so much better when it comes to the additional features.

• Stock media: 3/5

Adobe Creative Cloud: Scorecard

Should I buy?

Buy it if...

You have an Adobe subscription, need to manage its apps installed on your computer, browse for relevant information, and look for additional media. 

Don't buy it if...

You're not an Adobe user - and don't need access to all apps and tutorials.

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