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Don't mention the F word: Adobe releases Animate CC

Rebranded Flash Professional with new features including 4K video export

Adobe has released Animate CC, formerly known as Flash Professional, as part of its effort to move away from its proprietary plug-in and runtime in favour of HTML5 Canvas and WebGL.

The company announced its intentions at the end of November 2015, explaining that “we completely rewrote the tool over the past few years to incorporate native HTML5 Canvas and WebGL support".

One factor in the rebranding may be that when Flash hits the news, it is normally because of a new malicious exploit in the browser plug-in, a negative association that Adobe will be glad to lose.

That said, Flash Professional CC already supported HTML4 and WebGL, so this is a rebranding rather than a radically new product. Further, WebGL support remains in preview. Nevertheless, there are significant new features.

The CC in the name stands for Creative Cloud, Adobe's subscription-based suite of design software, and integration is improved in this release, with built in access to Adobe Typekit fonts, Adobe Stock images and assets stored in Creative Cloud libraries.

A feature called Vector Art Brushes lets you modify the path of a stroke after it has been drawn. You can also import SVG graphics.

Compositions can now be published as videos in custom resolutions, allowing 4K video and beyond.

Other new features include a rotatable canvas, so you can get the most comfortable angle for drawing, the ability to tag colours so you can change all colours with the same tag simultaneously, and reusable templates for HTML5 canvas content.

Editing an HTML Canvas animation

Editing an HTML Canvas animation

Flash has not really gone away though. When it announced the name change, Adobe stated that "over a third of all content created in Flash Professional uses HTML5," implying that up to two-thirds still uses Flash. This is still fully supported.

Further, the product includes a "Mobile Device Packaging" feature, allowing projects to be published as apps for iOS or Android using AIR (Adobe Integrated Runtime). However, this feature requires Flash and does not work with HTML5 compositions.

Adobe has also updated its Muse CC product, for code-free website editing. The new version supports responsive web design, transition effects, improved SVG import, and better integration with Creative Cloud. ®

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