Back in the 90’s, Macromedia Flash was the king of web-based animation and it was everywhere. Then in 2010 the great Steve Jobs drove a stake right through its heart, refusing to endorse it on the iOS platform. A testament to the strength of the iPhone and the nascent HTML5 standard, Flash died a fast death (surprisingly fast for many of us, given just how universally adopted it had been up until that moment.)

Now we need to clarify something here: Flash Player the web standard died the horrible death, but the authoring software by the same name remained. It’s death would have left many users in a pickle. Over the years animators had adopted Flash as an affordable solution for authoring vector-based animation. These animators were facing the arduous task of rebuilding workflows and jumping to another ship.

Fortunately, reason prevailed at Flash’s parent corporation Adobe (Macromedia had been swallowed whole by Adobe in 2005). Rather than holding firm to the Flash player install base like a dwindling mountain of Betamax, they deftly transitioned Flash to an HTML 5 authoring tool.

At the end of 2015 Flash was renamed, “Adobe Animate,” a clear indicator of its function as an animation tool rather than a general web-based dynamic media platform.

So where does that leave you, kind reader? Well, if you’re looking to delve into 2D animation, look no further. Animate is a tried and tested, production-streamlined animation package that is most likely sitting in the “Please install me” list in your Creative Cloud pop-up menu.

Of course, here at moviola.com we don’t like to see tools laying on the virtual shelf, unused and in danger of rusting. So we created one of our famous Survival Guides to get you up and running in Adobe Animate before your coffee runs cold.

The training covers the fundamentals of the interface and workflow, both using manual sketching of poses and IK bone-based animation (you can use this cool free plugin to add that hand-drawn tweened look after the fact). You’ll learn how to build a basic walk-cycle, but the principles apply to any animation task you might want to create. All in a little over twenty minutes of your precious time.

As with ALL the content at moviola.com the training is completely free, Moviola’s way of thanking the filmmaking industry that has given so much to us. Enjoy the rest of the catalog from moviola.com here.