Could After Effects replace Flash?

[Willanatior]

I'm currently taking a class on After Effects. It's only a trimester so we won't be covering a large percentage of the program, but what I have noticed is that it has a lot of the same components, in a way that is simpler to control unless you have a personalized Flash interface or something.

I see a lot of people that use Flash for Tweening animation are moving more to AE. I think David Firth is using it on his last few Salad Fingers and Sock episodes. And I mean why not? You pass a very nice looking image you made yourself in Photoshop to AE and you have an array of possibilities to do with it.

But then there's Frame by Frame animation. And that's what I like. If the next AE had an option to draw from a tablet, would it make animation on Flash futile? There's still the option of drawing a sequence in Photoshop and passing it to After Effects as a composition, with even more options to transform it.

I ask all this because I've been very loyal to Flash for the past 9 years (6 months total in time I actually spent animating), but I feel After Effects has a lot more that it can bring to the table, especially with the combination of other programs like Photoshop, Maya, Premiere, and etc.

I'd like anyone's opinions with this and their experience with After Effects. I'm just starting to use it and know some basics but it's a big program; is it worth spending all the time to learn it or will its use become obsolete as I find new programs? Is the use of After Effects considered "cheating" by some animators? When does a video stop being an animation and becomes "video composition"?

I'll be back in around 5 hours to see if anyone even opened this topic. Anyway, thank you for reading!

[kmau]

I think neither can replace the other. After Effects works well in conjunction with other specialized programs while Flash is an all-in one jack-of-all-trades for amateurs and professionals alike. (Plus Flash has Action Script)

[Willanatior]

At 1/15/14 03:46 PM, kmau wrote: I think neither can replace the other. After Effects works well in conjunction with other specialized programs while Flash is an all-in one jack-of-all-trades for amateurs and professionals alike. (Plus Flash has Action Script)

I guess I forgot to mention animation in general. I mean, yeah there are also some scripts you can use to alter the animation, but nothing you can't find on the effects tab in After Effects.

[kmau]

At 1/15/14 04:00 PM, Willanatior wrote: I guess I forgot to mention animation in general. I mean, yeah there are also some scripts you can use to alter the animation, but nothing you can't find on the effects tab in After Effects.

My point was that After Effects doesn't support drawing frame by frame animation (you'll need to import from photoshop or similar programs) while Flash contains the tools you need for that. Symbol manipulation is arguably better done in After Effects if you require additional effects that cannot be provided by Flash.