MANILA, Philippines – Adobe will no longer discontinue its 2D animation software Adobe Animate on March 1. Instead, it will be placed into an indefinite maintenance mode where Adobe says it will remain available to “individual, small business, and enterprise customers.”
In an updated Frequently Asked Questions page, Adobe said it was “not discontinuing or removing access to Adobe Animate. Animate will continue to be available for both current and new customers, and we will ensure you continue to have access to your content. There is no longer a deadline or date by which Animate will no longer be available.”
“We are committed to ensuring Animate users have access to their content regardless if the state of development changes,” the company added.
The change from cancelling the service to entering maintenance mode was likely caused by pushback and frustrated pleas from its user base, which included 2D animators and game designers. Animate, previously known as Macromedia Flash, had been a staple in the animation scene for its featureset.
Nothing quite compares to Animate
In its prior end-of-life FAQ, Adobe mentioned some of the company’s alternatives, though the wording of the company’s own alternatives did not quite replicate or compare to the functionalities of Animate.
Said Adobe at the time, “Customers with a Creative Cloud Pro plan can use other Adobe apps to replace portions of Animate functionality. Adobe After Effects supports complex keyframe animation using the Puppet tool, while Adobe Express offers one-click animation effects that can be easily applied to photos, videos, text, shapes, and other design elements.”
TechCrunch, in its report, noted that existing Animate users were worried as there weren’t alternatives that had the apparent feature set of Animate by comparison.
On X, Mewgenics game designer Tyler Glaiel went as far as to request that Adobe open-source Animate rather than abandon it entirely.
– Rappler.com