Hi,
I cursorily tried out openfl.org Just to open a demo, it had to download a lot of stuff, took a long time and I just gave up.
davidwitt415 1611 days ago [-]
Former Flash/AS Designer/Front-end Dev here with a couple of thoughts; Timeline animation is the most obvious feature of Flash to most people, and it was also the reason why so many Devs hated Flash. This niche is for Animators, and there are lots of timeline animation tools around, including Animate, which is just Flash rebranded. I used to teach Flash as well, and 'easy to create animation' is a relative term for sure!
For me, the value in Flash was the Stage, Symbols, and the Library, using the single frame movie paradigm. This allowed designers to import graphics and create complex UI layouts, interactive content and animations using Symbols, which could then be controlled using Actionscript.
In that light, I think a good path would be to create a Flash-like visual IDE that integrates with Haxe, which has a ton of target languages and platforms, but which lacks this kind of visual front end.
100-xyz 1611 days ago [-]
Can you elaborate on how Haxe would contribute to this? Currently, I am envisioning only browsers across all platforms.
davidwitt415 1611 days ago [-]
Haxe can output Javascript. The utility in Haxe is really in being able to target multiple platforms. I work in mobile/embedded so that's where i'm coming from.
buboard 1611 days ago [-]
Reminds of Blender's animation tools. But with python instead of JS
Haven't used it, but I am sure it isn't the only one in this market
For cartoons, there is plenty of other software, including Adobe Animate
poisonborz 1611 days ago [-]
This goes multiple ways
- An animation editor like Flash? Ther's still Animate
- A "multimedia" framework for standalone content? I would doubt there is a demand nowadays
- A browser-targeted/cross-platform animation editor? That would be nice.
For the latter, there were some tries already, even from Adobe.
The problem is cross-browser compatibility and performance.
I'd really like to see something based on https://greensock.com/gsap/
They solved all the hard problems already, and its itself based on a Flash/ActionScript framework so terms and structures are familiar, eg. keyframe based tweens.
pixelbash 1611 days ago [-]
Iirc there are some tools to export After fx animation json to html 5, not sure how good they are though.
100-xyz 1611 days ago [-]
Similar to your third point - a browser-targeted/cross-platform animation editor.
dukoid 1611 days ago [-]
Is there any good introduction how the original editor worked? I think I tried to use it once ages ago, but it wasn't really intuitive for me to use it for anything...
The part I remember: You could draw something, then advance to a different point in time, move stuff around there, and then this would form an animation(?).
What I didn't get at all: How would one be able to make a game out of this?
UserIsUnused 1611 days ago [-]
There was scripts. you could add code to any object in the screen.
dukoid 1611 days ago [-]
Does this mean it boiled down to code mostly in the end? For instance, how would one design animations for objects separately from the "master" timeline? Was this possible in the editor somehow? Or just code?
100-xyz 1611 days ago [-]
You could create SVG separately, even import it.
Then there was the logic eg. if user clicks this, then start this, or if this action is accomplished then start this...
BerislavLopac 1611 days ago [-]
I always thought that a good editor for SVGs would be a solid replacement for Flash...
100-xyz 1611 days ago [-]
An editor alone would not do. We would also have to add logic ie when user click this, do this...
BerislavLopac 1609 days ago [-]
That's just Javascript...
100-xyz 1611 days ago [-]
Here's what I see for the MVP:
1) simple SVG editor
2) timeline and tweening
3) simple logic creator (when user clicks this, do this. or this action finished then do this)
4) outputs to some file
It would be a browser oriented and cross platform editor. The first targets could be tutorials, slide presentation creators. Then simple animation.
Anyone interested in joining in, holler.
buboard 1611 days ago [-]
A question is whether HTML5 can be as fast and lightweight as flash. I think it's a big part of the experience and can be hit or miss in HTML, with some things being faster but others resource hogs (like video). The good thing about flash was its more or less consistent performance, and generally not very cpu intensive
100-xyz 1611 days ago [-]
I think one of the complaints about Flash was it was very cpu intensive! It would not even work on the earlier iPhones - one of the reasons it died. The recent threads about Flash go into further detail.
venatiodecorus 1611 days ago [-]
i've always thought it would be great to have something similar that created animation using CSS. CSS animation seems to be pretty neat these days. not sure what the performance of something like that would be though.
WilliamEdward 1611 days ago [-]
CSS animation is limited, but standard and less intrusive than an equivalent JS animation. It's nothing new.
WilliamEdward 1611 days ago [-]
Is HTML5 not the intended replacement for Flash?
dukoid 1611 days ago [-]
I think this thread is mostly about the editor? Ideally the output format would be SVG or HTML5 today probably...
100-xyz 1611 days ago [-]
Yes. Output could be an HTML5 element or something similar.
dave84 1611 days ago [-]
What’s wrong with Adobe Animate?
drcongo 1611 days ago [-]
The first of those two words.
Rendered at 15:50:33 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time) with Vercel.
Here is a discussion I've found: https://community.openfl.org/t/i-think-openfl-need-a-power-u...
Also an open-source candidate: http://en.fairygui.com
For me, the value in Flash was the Stage, Symbols, and the Library, using the single frame movie paradigm. This allowed designers to import graphics and create complex UI layouts, interactive content and animations using Symbols, which could then be controlled using Actionscript.
In that light, I think a good path would be to create a Flash-like visual IDE that integrates with Haxe, which has a ton of target languages and platforms, but which lacks this kind of visual front end.
Haven't used it, but I am sure it isn't the only one in this market
For cartoons, there is plenty of other software, including Adobe Animate
- An animation editor like Flash? Ther's still Animate
- A "multimedia" framework for standalone content? I would doubt there is a demand nowadays
- A browser-targeted/cross-platform animation editor? That would be nice.
For the latter, there were some tries already, even from Adobe. The problem is cross-browser compatibility and performance.
I'd really like to see something based on https://greensock.com/gsap/ They solved all the hard problems already, and its itself based on a Flash/ActionScript framework so terms and structures are familiar, eg. keyframe based tweens.
The part I remember: You could draw something, then advance to a different point in time, move stuff around there, and then this would form an animation(?).
What I didn't get at all: How would one be able to make a game out of this?
Then there was the logic eg. if user clicks this, then start this, or if this action is accomplished then start this...
1) simple SVG editor 2) timeline and tweening 3) simple logic creator (when user clicks this, do this. or this action finished then do this) 4) outputs to some file
It would be a browser oriented and cross platform editor. The first targets could be tutorials, slide presentation creators. Then simple animation.
Anyone interested in joining in, holler.