Animations and video?

[Ayleigh]

Another thing I was wondering...can you do any type of animations in Affinity aa of now? Like you can with Adobe. And if not, do you guys think this may be something they do in the future? With the steady climb in popularity of video and animation, I think it would be really cool if Affinity did implant that in some way. Either added with Designer or even a new app similar to After Effects would be cool. 

I'm still going to use Designer and Photo but I'm really trying to eliminate any need to have to use Adobe ever again and be locked into their contracts. I was just curious. Thank you in advance!

[v_kyr]

NO - And if I look into the crystal ball I can't see yet nothing like that. Also they probably should better first implement those in the past often committed and missing features for Designer/Photo/(and now Publisher), before taking that route.

[J.B.]

Yeah I wish they offered video editing that competed with FCP, Premier, Vegas. 

As far as I know Toon Boom & Moho are pretty strong animation software options.

[SrPx]

On 3/28/2019 at 4:12 AM, Ayleigh said:

Another thing I was wondering...can you do any type of animations in Affinity aa of now? Like you can with Adobe. And if not, do you guys think this may be something they do in the future? With the steady climb in popularity of video and animation, I think it would be really cool if Affinity did implant that in some way. Either added with Designer or even a new app similar to After Effects would be cool. 

I'm still going to use Designer and Photo but I'm really trying to eliminate any need to have to use Adobe ever again and be locked into their contracts. I was just curious. Thank you in advance!

Davinci Resolve and Davinci Fusion (for Premiere and After Effects (-ish) functionality). Pretty functional , free versions available.

https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/davinciresolve/

https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/davinciresolve/fusion

For animation, I'd recommend first the free ones (that's my habit)  , like Opentoonz and Synfig. Then, as mentioned, Moho. IMO Toonboon's Harmony is pricey, when you can do it with other tools (unless is for very specific professional work).  Spine is great for games , very standard for medium and small studios.  esotericsoftware.com 

For frame by frame animation I like Animation Paper animationpaper.com  . But really, many other tools can do for this. If not requiring deep features, pro workflows, then even the free Krita ( krita.org ) animation features could do. Or if needing to have a comic drawing package anyway, just get the Pro of Clip Studio Paint EX, that one has quite some animation features. For easy dumb stuff to have some effects, and even for some frame by frame animation, and vector based, the abandoned yet free Vectorian Giotto can yet be of use. Only at download depots. Dunno if runs in Win 10, tho, I don't use that thing, yet....

[Ayleigh]

9 hours ago, SrPx said:

Davinci Resolve and Davinci Fusion (for Premiere and After Effects (-ish) functionality). Pretty functional , free versions available.

https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/davinciresolve/

https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/davinciresolve/fusion

For animation, I'd recommend first the free ones (that's my habit)  , like Opentoonz and Synfig. Then, as mentioned, Moho. IMO Toonboon's Harmony is pricey, when you can do it with other tools (unless is for very specific professional work).  Spine is great for games , very standard for medium and small studios.  esotericsoftware.com 

For frame by frame animation I like Animation Paper animationpaper.com  . But really, many other tools can do for this. If not requiring deep features, pro workflows, then even the free Krita ( krita.org ) animation features could do. Or if needing to have a comic drawing package anyway, just get the Pro of Clip Studio Paint EX, that one has quite some animation features. For easy dumb stuff to have some effects, and even for some frame by frame animation, and vector based, the abandoned yet free Vectorian Giotto can yet be of use. Only at download depots. Dunno if runs in Win 10, tho, I don't use that thing, yet....

Awesome!! Thanks so much for all your suggestions. I do have davinci resolve already but I just recently downloaded it but haven't tried the fusion part of it yet. Is the separate fusion download different than what you get with davinci as a package? 

I will definitely look into your other suggestions as well! I mainly just want to bring some life to my art and visions. Not full blown cartoon and cartoon characters necessarily but just little animation accents I guess you could say. And I would also like to make short animation clips to use for ads and social media content. I do like cinemagraphs too, but that's probably a whole different game I'm sure. I don't know. I do have a couple apps on my phone that can do that. 

But, again, thank you! I appreciate any advice I can get. 

[SrPx]

TL;DR version /conclusion : I would play mostly with Fusion and Resolve, play with Synfig (and maybe Giotto, too). See how it goes. Just "playing" with those will be free of charge, for you. Maybe Opentoonz has uses for your case, too, I don't know. Not leaving out getting at least a "taste" of trials of Tooboom Harmony, (the "cheaper" one, as higher gets crazy), Moho the 300 $ version, and Cacani. Simply so that you can compare what you are missing in the others compared to more pro tools, or just different takes at it, and then you can reinvent the wheel, your own tricks to emulate similar workflows in the less powerful and way cheaper tools. I do that everyday since I can remember.

11 hours ago, Ayleigh said:

Awesome!! Thanks so much for all your suggestions. I do have davinci resolve already but I just recently downloaded it but haven't tried the fusion part of it yet. Is the separate fusion download different than what you get with davinci as a package? 

The below wall of text might be only of interest to you. Maybe not even the case. So I did hide it. Just hit the spoiler tag "Reveal hidden..." if you are curious.

 

 

I have 'kind of' experience with several video editors, though I have not worked at deep stuff like color grading, fine work like that.  Davinci, all I know is what I have read from reviews, and techniques watched in video tuts, tested the trials, but had not have yet a full project (for that, one needs a client asking for that  ;D ) using it. For all I have read, at least till recently (right now, I don't know) Fusion standalone is supposedly more complete than the version included in Resolve. That said, the other day trying to download the standalone version as I did long ago, I did not find the link. I don't follow their news or road map, so, not sure if simply they have integrated all in Resolve, or is the ultimate intention. Or maybe just they don't wish to provide a trial for the Fusion purchase?  Money-wise for us would be outstanding (if "full" Fusion gets into Resolve), as one gets a tool that _somewhat_ makes what After Effects does, and also does a lot of video editing, in a single price of 300 bucks, which is the cost of an average cpu, so, quite in the range/spot of what an indie would aim to before discarding it as too pricey and going for a crappier way worse solution. Still, there are cheapo solutions (not mentioning some as compete with Affinity in other apps!) that are very effective for just some experimenting in basic operations (in video editing, am thinking of Vegas, which I used quite at jobs not cheap anymore, and some others).  I remember even using a combo of the free virtual dub, ffmpeg (with the sometimes particular help of imagemagick batch image editing, both command line) and some windows based transcoders, at some jobs. As sometimes one is asked for very specific /limited tasks.

But yep, I don't know... maybe their plan is integrating Fusion fully into Resolve definitively ? I don't know, really. If not the case, IMO the Fusion download should be a bit easier to find in the site. I've read in their forum in several threads that Fusion standalone is (or was) more advanced/powerful than the one embedded in Resolve. But I don't know for sure what's the case.

11 hours ago, Ayleigh said:

I will definitely look into your other suggestions as well!

All are options... Now that I read your plans in more detail, maybe you are looking mostly for an After Effects functionality, combined with video editing. The use of some subtle animation over illustration, and probably, to do "motion graphics" for social media, I know what do you exactly mean. IMO, Fusion can serve for both perfectly, for all what I have seen of the tool's usage in videos and well, on paper, the list of stuff that does, and also, examples of pros that I could see were done and shown in the forums. It's quite a pretty powerful thing, for all I know. 

For completeness... seems I spoke about a certain Adobe Flash clone (of the elder times, Animate CC is so much better, of course) that is yet distributed for free, Vectorian Giotto, which well, it has some weirdness in the UI, but hey, it's free, and still, better than a some low cost commercial apps, which you can use to play around easily. The url I did not put : https://download.cnet.com/Vectorian-Giotto/3000-6676_4-10524392.html   For some little FX, some anim, might do. If you get on with Synfig, that seems a better path, in that specific area.

My take at it. As you are just looking into things and what shoes fit you, just download them all ( in the vector animation area, even just to have solid tools to compare too, more pro ones, I'd also try Moho's trial and Cacani's trial. Toonboon's Harmony if that budget is sth you'd  ever consider), and install them. I'd be to think Synfig might be a nice bet for making vector animation. Is also actively developed, and is open source (to some people that sounds weird, but is actually  a guarantee for a bunch of aspects). So you could quite well do your vector animation in Synfig, export, import in Davinci Resolve, Sony vegas or whatever. That is, you can do your motion graphics, vector based animation, or at least, vector-like,  in almost whatever that allows that. Surely also in Giotto, and who knows, you might like it more/find it easier. Just consider: Open source >>> much better future than abandonware in a download depot.... The former is developed now, can be forked if the project stalls, retaken, etc, the latter, well... just a matter that an OS makes the whatever libraries non compatible and end of the tool, unless you keep an old machine with an unsecure OS just for one or a pair of abandonware apps. Or... just a VM, if that keeps being possible for arcane OSes. Right now, Giotto works at least in WIn 7, for all I know.

The entire Davinci Resolve package might suffice for all you need. For a while, even the free one. I know I'd buy it if given the chance to work in a serious project, as I'd most surely would be asked a 4k output, these days, though there's yet a lot of work requested in lower res. I have not checked -I did; can't remember-  the other differences between free and commercial, but I'm gonna do a wild guess without hitting again the site:  and I suppose color grading would be out, and anything that goes more into the super pro field, less in the indy side. They're pretty generous/indy friendly (this includes small studios) compared to other video/motion suites, and I guess that's one of the keys for their success.  But all has its use. You don't plan on cartoons. But imagine at some point you add sth that could use bone based animation or other anim feature used well by synfig. You might do that part there, then export (in separate PNGs/TGAs sequences, or whatever). I've done entire character animation sets mixing traditional frame by frame animation, 2D hand drawn frame by frame effects (FX) , with same characters modeled carefully in Wings 3D, then animated, and toon rendered (renders like a cartoon drawing) in Blender, when yet the toon render were much more of a hack in Blender than today [ Blender is yet a long learning experience, but I need to point out they are strongly adding stuff for 2D/2.5D animation. And not referring to the fact that they have a compositor and video editor inside Blender, beither its toon features and powerful timeline. It's new stuff, grease pencil improvements, etc]  ...and I did the mix due to... speed's sake, lol. Just like in a game similar to Diablo II, I was employed among other things to draw frames and items in 2D so that they looked 3D,  also for time and milestones issues. The players never guessed. One uses whatever gives a pro result and is more efficient.

In your shoes (tho I have quite big feet...xD ) I'd download primarily Fusion + Resolve ...better... Just the Resolve package. Your needs seems not to be very crazy... what if the Resolve embedded fusion is enough ? You then get to have all the pack for 300 bucks. Then, also Synfig, and Giotto just in case a combination of it with Synfig might end up as the healthy thing to do, at least at the beginning (maybe once getting to be more experienced, Synfig only, for that part).

There are way more tools, but I think that's a reasonable "pack" to begin with, see what fits you. Just don't go only for the "I feel god with this". If so, I'd have never learnt Blender, and man, does that tool provide good gigs ! . All these are easier to learn than what Blender was pre-2.8 (this beta now is way easier to learn). So, at least with the big names that most people confirm to be excellent tools, put into them more patience. But If you get super stuck, and I mean, really, at that point you're closer to abandon the activity, then, only then, remember :   there are so many apps and UI styles, that you don't need to suffer that much, just give another a try. But really, the Davinci tools seem to worth it. Seems there's no other better deal of a package that allows such a permissive free version and advanced product for the premium version. I know for my tries that Fusion is not as intuitive as other tools I've handled, but do NOT get discouraged by that. Is a very definitive tool, from all the real life examples I have watched (videos). Also, in case you're tempted to go for After Effects, the cloud, consider it seems you need quite a nice machine to make that work for 4k work. And that said, if you plan to work with clients that use the typical workflows... After Effects could be a total must. It's different to work with industry clients than doing the kind of indy work for which that step is not needed. And for just your personal work, which seems the case, anything that allows what you want to achieve, obviously.

Moho is very powerful , could be interesting too, but is a bit too much out of the scope you are heading to, IMO; which is more in the line of Resolve and Fusion and the help of some free or cheaper vector based animator.

Again, for completeness, I seem to have forgotten Cacani  https://cacani.sg . A very advanced tool for vector animation Again, in what seems to   be the mega standard price for so many motion related packages, 300 bucks. Having a very particular licensing. They don't speak about subscriptions (clever wording) instead you have the perpetual for 300 bucks, then a 1 year for 130, other is 69 (180 days), and so on.  Nice for example for a particular project, a one off, and hopefully not to get trapped in the one year deals and too many TSR processes that certain other subscription solution forces too.  But am all for perpetual, I'd save the bucks for that. 

As well, and although is out of your scope, I did not mention Spriter (and seems they are preparing the release of a 2.0 version), https://brashmonkey.com , at the time I mentioned the super specialized in games one that is Spine (both are character focused, using bones, rotoscoping moving pieces, etc. All optimized for games, but u can use 'em for whatever). Quite cheaper is Spriter, just not as an standard in the industry. But VERY nice. Seems the same company is now selling Pro Motion NG, a mythic package (which I never loved) for pixel art based animation (again, out of your scope, otherwise I'd had mention it , plus the ultra cheap Aseprite and the free Graphicsgale). Some ppl do enlarged pixel art anim in motion graphics for social media, but I guess is mostly using traditional animation tools just aiming for  the aesthetics, not using real sprite animation tools (or maybe they do and vectorize/scale with a nearest neighborhood algorithm to avoid anti aliasing).