Animation Suite recommendation

[Macamus Prime]

Hello all,

I am interested in an animation suite of sorts. I am familiar with Flash (way back before Adobe bought them, but I never touched any of the latest versions).

I am looking to publish .mov files, etc. Post them on youtube and share with whomever.

Anyone have any experience with a great animation suite they could recommend?

Thank you in advance.

 

[Zaap]

If you're really serious, try Toon Boom Animate Pro. The price is fairly steep, but it's a complete animation studio in a box. (I'm not personally familiar with the cheaper non-Pro version of Animate- it may be fine for your needs). I find TBAP more intuitive than Flash, with a much more complete out of box tool set. I would recommend it over Flash CS5 if it was a case of one or the other.

Anime Studio Pro is also very good- not nearly as full-featured as TBAP, but if you don't require the more high end features, this is very capable. Again, I only use the pro version, not familiar with the non-pro version.

I use Apple Motion a lot on various animated side-projects. At first glance it seems like more of a composting tool but it's very capable of great AfterFX type animation and effects. (Although I wouldn't recommend it as an only solution, rather a complement to other animation tools.) The new version 5 is fantastic- the only pro-level thing to come out of Apple's current self-destruction of the Final Cut franchise. For $50 it's a steal.

 

[runawayprisoner]

I think Flash is still one of the top notch ones. After the Adobe acquisition, it got a bit worse in performance, but in return, you now have the capability to include video clips, do 3D transformations, and even write your own 3D engine if you so desire.

If it's used strictly for animations and outputting GIF, MOV, and so on, I think it's one of those to pay attention to.

 

[Macamus Prime]

Much appreciated - thank you both very much.