Flash being replaced with Adobe Animate CC

So the news is out. Flash is being replaced with adobe animate cc. The full adobe announcement can be seen here. What does this mean? It means that Adobe is trying to rebrand Flash. Flash is not going away. Adobe is essentially just renaming it. However, there is more to it than that. Adobe has been working on various HTML5 output tools for the past few years (ie Edge Animate). So when this is released over the next few months, will Edge Animate go away and be merged with Flash? Will Flash actually have good HTML5 output?

Currently instructional designers are using captivate and articulate for most of their development because these tools are easy to use. However, these tools have major limitations. The HTML5 output is OK but even if it was perfect these tools are a little more than animated flash cards. They do an ok job but a serious training developer needs something more powerful with no limits. Currently this involves programming (ie javascript, java, etc), flash (which isnt compatible on mobile devices), or game engine software like unity. If the new version of flash truly can push out HTML5 content that has the power of an object oriented language then it could be a game changer. However, I do not see this happening just yet. All of the tests I have done are far from perfect using what Adobe currently has on the market. I think a big issue is that Adobe Animate really needs to use javascript instead of AS3 for programming but I am not sure this is the direction they are going – instead they push out AS3 content and convert it to javascript. I guess we will find out in the next few months when Animate is released.

Adobe Edge Animate

Adobe Edge, now available for free to download until October. At that point it will go on sale. So what is it? Well it is a similar program to Flash, just not as powerful. It is HTML5 though so I have a feeling this is the direction Adobe is going. My guess is that this and either dreamweaver or flash will merge..similar to what happened with Flex. Here is a table that shows where Edge fits into Adobe’s software development process:

Product Sample use cases Supported technologies
Adobe Edge Animate Motion and interaction design for new compositions or using existing CSS-based page layouts, content rotators, simple games, advertising. HTML/HTML5, JavaScript, CSS/CSS3, JSON, web graphics including SVG, jQuery-based animation framework.
Adobe Dreamweaver Websites and web applications for desktops, smartphones, and other devices HTML/HTML5, CSS, JavaScript, jQuery, PHP, PhoneGap, site management, FTP, CMS frameworks, SVN (Subversion)
Adobe Flash® Professional Immersive interactive experiences, mobile applications, gaming, premium video, advertising ActionScript, Flash Player, AIR for desktop and mobile
Adobe Flash® Builder ich Internet Applications (RIAs) and mobile applications Professional ActionScript IDE, Flex, Flash Player, AIR for desktop and mobile

The platform interface looks very similar to Flash. So this looks like it will be very easy to learn if you know Flash and HTML.

Link to software: http://edge.adobe.com