I have a question for a niche group of people.

[eclectech@things.uk]

@slowtiger This is definitely promising. Thanks.

[david_chisnall@infosec.exchange]

@eLearningTechie

Sadly, there seem to be very few tools with a good UI.

OmniGraffle 3 was more or less feature complete for me (the one missing feature I want is still not in 6 Pro: export to SVG keeping each layer as an SVG layer). I want that because Sozi can make layers appear and disappear in animations. A clone of OmniGraffle 3 would make me very happy. Newer versions of the same app make me a bit less happy and the alternatives I've tried just make me sad.

[damianwalsh@mastodon.social]

@eclectech Rive is worth checking out, similar to Flash in some ways: https://rive.app/

[howtophil@oldbytes.space]

@eclectech https://www.synfig.org/

Synfig Studio? I suggested it to my "non techie" friend, and he picked it up fast enough

[eclectech@things.uk]

@damianwalsh Thanks, will take a look.

[eclectech@things.uk]

@howtophil Oooh, the screenshots on the webpage certainly make it look worth checking out - and it mentions vector animation too. Thanks!

[rodlie@mastodon.social]

@eLearningTechie @david_chisnall @eclectech Friction might work, the UI/UX is more AE-like, but everything is vector (we also support bitmap), export can be animated SVG, video or image seq. Since I have not used Flash since ~2000 I don't remember the UX, but we are open for UX suggestions from Flash/Animate users.

[eclectech@things.uk]

@czarbucks I have a few to check out so 🤞

I am an optimist - there must be something out there!

[eclectech@things.uk]

Quick thanks to everyone boosting and making suggestions here. I am making a list!

Might take me a while to go through but I will feedback (with particular reference to whether it's an easy transition from Animate) when I can.

[ondrejzizka@mastodon.social]

@eclectech I recall I created some animations with SVG and CSS and JS. I've coded it, but I'm sure something can export this combo. If not, AI can animate a well structured SVG to some extent.

[elearningtechie@mas.to]

@eclectech That'll be useful. Looking forward to your review as I'm always looking for new (free) tools to play with.

[triffen@beige.party]

@david_chisnall Friction2D fits your particular list, but I have never opened Flash.

[simon_brooke@mastodon.scot]

@eclectech I've done some animation of SVG using JavaScript and later #ClojureScript (for interactive electricity grid display diagrams). The technique works but it's very geeky and pretty niche.

(The original diagrams were drawn using Inkscape, and we created a palette of active components you could add into Inkscape drawings)

There's a demo here which shows the concept:

https://simon-brooke.github.io/swinging-needle-meter/resources/public/index.html

Unless you're comfortable with writing software this is not the right technique for you.

[triffen@beige.party]

@eclectech Again haven't tried Illustrator, but people say that Affinity Designer feels much more like Illustrator than Inkscape does.
For mostly vector graphics there is also Graphite, it's mostly web only now but they've just released the first version of desktop app too, and promise add more animation nodes. It's node-based for all the procedural stuff, but you can also just draw stuff in it without looking at node graph.
I'm learning it in hopes that I like its animation stuff when it comes ;) As I'm more limited in options being on Linux.
My list is Manim that I write for in Python, and Friction2d for manual stuff. But it doesn't tween or deform raster past scaling and shearing, so morphing this raster image was quite a struggle.

[simon_brooke@mastodon.scot]

@eLearningTechie @david_chisnall I also use Inkscape for all my vector drawing stuff, but, to be honest, it's mainly technical rather than artistic.

Having said that, I have used Inkscape to create animated graphics, and even (for a past employer) created a palette of animated components which could be dragged and dropped into Inkscape drawings.

[triffen@beige.party]

@eclectech Have you heard of Cavalry yet? Have no idea how it compares, but I see it praised, and it's free for Windows and Mac (which is why I haven't yet tried it, but might wake up Wine for that).

[elearningtechie@mas.to]

@simon_brooke oh nice!

[simon_brooke@mastodon.scot]

@eLearningTechie The thing about Open Source software is that if it doesn't do what you want, you can extend it to do what you want -- but you may need to learn a lot more about it than you really wanted to!

Still, it was a hugely fun project, and a really useful tool.

[elearningtechie@mas.to]

@simon_brooke Absolutely, but not everyone has the skills or time (and motivation) to learn those skills. It's a pity but a fact of life. Like I said earlier on this topic, there are lots of apps out there, it's just a question of finding the one that works for your individual needs. I'm happy to invest some effort, but not everyone is.