14 DAY TRIAL // Adobe has just announced it will rename its Flash builder to Adobe Animate CC, adding HTML5 support to the tool that helped developers create so many Flash websites, ads and animation movies.
After 20 years during which Adobe's Flash Professional application was the go-to solution when needing to create a Flash-based animation, website or desktop application (via AIR), the company is taking its second step toward the new era of HTML 5.
The company took its first step a few years back, when it started moving the bulk of its employees from its Flash division to a new section focused on modern standards like HTML5, CSS3, and SVG.
Now, Adobe is announcing that the future version of Flash Professional will come out under a brand new name, Animate CC, and will provide an alternative for generating animations via HTML5 and SVG.
Adobe is finally actively moving away from Flash
Flash SWF files will be supported as first-class citizens inside Animate CC, but the usage of Flash on production websites is now almost extinct as a real-world practice.
The only places where Flash is going strong are online advertising, where Flash-based animated ads are still omnipresent, and animation studios. Flash for audio and video feeds has seen a serious decline since the introduction of HTML5.
For years, many security experts have asked Adobe to discontinue Flash. Many users have joined public campaigns in which they refuse to install Flash in their browser and then blog about the benefits.
With Adobe adding an alternative for generating animations via HTML5, SVG and WebGL (previously supported), and by renaming its product, many will view this as the first sign of Flash's demise. They may actually be right this time.
Michael Chaize, Principal Creative Cloud Evangelist at Adobe, has narrated a video presentation of Adobe Animate CC's main new features below:
