Is After Effects Feeling the Heat?

For the better part of two decades, Adobe After Effects has been the undisputed monarch of motion design. But lately, you can hear the faint crackle of pressure under the crown.

Apple Creative Studio

When Apple announced its new Creative Studio ecosystem, it raised some brows. A classic move though from Apple - make it efficient, make it fun, make it beautiful.

For young creatives coming up on MacBooks and iPads, the appeal is obvious. If Apple leans properly into motion tooling, not just editing but real animation and compositing, it’s a great shout for people looking to switch. Heck, I’ve already suggested to some people who struggle with the Adobe pricing to try it out.

The Calvary is coming. Pun intended.

First Canva disrupted design for the masses when it acquired Affinity Designer but it really turned up the heat when it snapped up Cavalry. There’s a real strategy starting to emerge and they now have some serious infrastructure.

The Rive Generation

Meanwhile Rive, in the wake of the Adobe’s news of Animate discontinuation, have integrated flash files into their system. Tho enables any user to convert old files into rive’s native extension. That’s a classy move.

It feels like Adobe’s competitors smell blood.

So what does this mean for Adobe?

After Effects still has a massive advantage: Ecosystem. Plugins. Legacy. You don’t just “switch” from that. You migrate slowly, begrudgingly, over years. On top of that the recent beta releases have been coming thick and fast with sensible feature updates instead of shiny gimmicks. For the first time in years, it feels like engineers are sitting next to working motion designers again.

For too long, Adobe could rely on inertia. Now it has credible challengers from every direction. That pressure is healthy. It forces evolution. It forces humility.

The throne isn’t gone.

But for the first time in a long time, it’s slightly warm.