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And thank you! I very much appreciate you checking out the video and the positive feedback!! 😀

The problem I see is that there are so many other companies with the same sketchy practices. But I am certainly on board with avoiding Adobe products when you can find something cheaper if it suits your needs.

Thank you for the comment. I am curious, why could you no longer use CS6? It has been a while. I know the operating system would eventually prevent it from working, but I vaguely remember that you had either not connect to the internet or not use certain features that would connect it to the internet which would stop it from working. Ah!! Actually I think I remember now. I think if you used the FREE TRIAL for the subscription CSS it rendered your legal version of CS6 unusable. I vaguely remember warning people not to use the free trial.

Maybe you are on to something!

I know! I couldn't believe it when I saw that email!

Thank so much for the info! It is nice to know that Affinity works non-destructively! And thanks for the well wishes on learning the new software.

I like your idea of teaching Affinity alongside Adobe. I will really push the parents to get Affinity when I teach kids and teens since it won't cost them anything. It's a no brainer. I don't particularly like the idea of renting software either, but I can live with it. In the early days of subscriptions, I think most places gave you the option of turning off auto renew. Now you either have to cancel early or hope that you remember to cancel the following year. It should be our choice as a consumer to renew our subscriptions not remember to cancel it. I wonder how much Adobe makes each year from deceased customers because of auto renew.

Hello MeymannEnterprise Funny, from what I have read, there really aren't any direct alternatives for After Effects. And that is the one piece of software that would keep me tied to Adobe. I actually address that in my latest video which is called Planned Obsolescence and Old Software Pair Well. I have a set of the old Adobe CS6 discs and I also have an old unsupported Mac that I was considering throwing out, but after the Adobe fiasco, I decided to keep it. I can just install the old CS6 version on my old computer and use it for quite a while. You might be able to find an old copy of CS5 for a reasonable price on Ebay if you have a PC or Mac that can run it. But to answer your question, I hear that Apple Motion is probably the closest you will find. Here is a video that has some good information although they rank Apple Motion at 10. 10 Best Adobe After Effects Alternatives in 2022 [Free & Paid] | What to Choose? th-cam.com/video/_NV_tJ6T1UE/w-d-xo.html

Here is another link to Brad Colbow. This is linked to the last 30 seconds or so of his video where he recommends a few After Effects alternatives. HitFilm seems to be his choice. th-cam.com/video/lLab5ChFFho/w-d-xo.html

I agree! When I send a client a PNG it doesn't matter what software I used to get the end result. There are only a few projects that I have each year where the specific software that I use comes into play.

It may not matter to the client what tools you use, but it should certainly matter to you, if you're getting paid for it.

@@KuttyJoe Agreed!

I agree that Affinity is far from superior to Adobe, no question about that, but most people don't need all of the features packed into Adobe Suite. I think the main reason they don't have those things you are looking for comes down to money. They were recently purchased by Canva for an estimated $380 million to $886 million dollars whereas Adobe is worth $240 billion. They have a lot more money to spend on developing their products. But since Affinity was recently purchased by Canva, I think they will likely start improving the product.

I wouldn't call it deliberate neglect. Serif simply has never made software on the level of Adobe in their whole 30 year history. A lot of people think that Affinity is a new company that came out of nowhere with 3 fresh new products. The truth is those 3 products are just rebranded versions of the same products that existed on Windows for many years prior. I was using them in the early 2000's myself. I was also using Adobe software back then both at home and on my job. The amount of things that Adobe has over Serif/Affinity is massive, but people don't know that. That's why there are so many youtube videos that make direct comparisons and compare prices as if these are comparable products. I mean, a pickup truck is cheaper than a 18-wheeler but nobody is doing price comparisons! But we do it with software and people really want to believe that you can get something like Photoshop for $50.00. In truth, there's nothing like Photoshop on the planet, at any price point.

@@KuttyJoe Hello KuttyJoe, at a one time price that Affinity sells for, I don't think they can ever compete on Adobe's level. I didn't realize that Affinity has been around for so long, thanks for that history. I have owned a copy of Affinity Photo and Design since 2019 but I keep them for the most part as a back-up to Photoshop. Occasionally Adobe cuts me off if I am not connected to the internet even though I have paid access. I teach beginner Photohop and Illustrator classes so I rarely teach automation. In 2020 when everything went online my students didn't have access to Adobe till about a month into the semester, so I pivoted to Photopea. It isn't Photoshop but I was able to do about 95% of my class with it. But yeah, it was very slow at times. Also, with Photopea since it is browser based, when the schools started handing out Chromebooks to students, many couldn't run Photoshop, so Photopea got the job done where Photoshop couldn't in this rare instance. What I am saying is I value students having access to Affinity year round even if it is inferior to Adobe.

@@Teacher_Tangents It's good that there are lots of low applications that people can use but there is an important distinction. Expensive software is built to support major industry. Cheap software never bothers with such features and functions because it's marketed to people who don't work in major industry. So it's not realistic to replace Adobe software with software who's sole focus is just painting images. The competitor for Illustrator is Coreldraw which costs the same as Illustrator. The competitor for Indesign is QuarkExpress which costs similar to Indesign. And there's nothing in the world like Photoshop. There are lots and lots of digital painting apps and a lot of them are really excellent but none of them are the total solution that is Photoshop. I hate Adobe pricing as much as anybody else. The reason I discovered Serif software back in the day was because I was looking for an alternative to Adobe, and this was long before the subscription pricing.

Yes, I hope they make these predatory policies against the law.

Now that the company was acquired by Canva they might now have the finances to add that to the software. I have heard that is the deal breaker for some photographers.

@@Teacher_Tangents I’m not a photographer but I love being able to automate my design process.

@@tiffanyw3794 Interesting. I use automated processes with Photoshop all the time, but I have never used them in Illustrator. I need to explore that. Actually that is not true . . . I once worked with a client and I had to do about 1,000 little labels. There were only slight variations with each. The automation saved me a good 8 hours of repetitive work. Hmmmm . . . well, my fingers are crossed that Affinity adds automation soon. But for now, I still have Adobe.

@@Teacher_Tangents with illustrator I use a cvs file along with my Jsx script and design templates. Hundreds of designs straight automation. Saves me hours

Yep, exactly my problem, too! There's some limited automation in Affinity Photo, but far from being enough. And completely missing in Affinity Designer - even though I only use it for *batch conversion* (and there's a real time saver with Photoshop and Illustrator). But there are some serious problems with export quality in Affinity Designer and handling of gradients on import and export - not ready for prime time, at least not yet.

That is nice to hear that you made the switch and never looked back. I don't think I would pay for Adobe if my employer didn't give me access for free. I actually think it would be more economical to pay the month to month fees only if I had a client that needed me to specifically work with Adobe software. I think Affinity would work well for me on a daily basis. I didn't know that you could use Photoshop brushes in Affinity Photo. I will have to try that out.

@Teacher_Tangents thanks for the reply. You can definitely give Affinity a deep dive. And I also agree that it would be great if an employer would get Adobe, but I do hope in the future that the industry steers away from a standard software to create even more opportunities for creatives and developers. I love the support open source software has been getting lately. As a teacher yourself, here are some great Affinity teachers to learn from (they have been super helpful to me, I hope they are for you too) Design made simple Envato tuts Design method Technically Trent ArtistWright

@@celinejvr7 Thanks for the tutorials suggestions to get started with Affinity! And I do hope the industry starts to move away from industry standard software and more toward just using industry standard file formats.

I agree 100%. I have a funny story. Back in December there was an explosion at a power plant the night before final exams. Parts of the city experienced a blackout but at the school we were "fine." I was told we had power but no internet. I thought, great, I have all of my files on a flash drive so not problem. The lab tech pointed out to me that without internet access, NO ONE could sign into ADOBE Creative Cloud so we had to cancel the final exam for my class that uses Adobe Illustrator! It was crazy. It kind of blew my mind at the realization that losing internet access could mess things up so much.

@@Teacher_Tangents Worse yet, We get hit with hurricane season and a hurricane can drop the internet for a week, as towers go down etc….Generators are great, but if the net is down, so what!!

​@@PhiddyPford I once spent 10 days with no power after a hurricane but l at least I still had internet through my cell phone. It's scary how much we depend on the internet for so much in our everyday lives.

@@Teacher_Tangents Yeppers! I unfortunately know that well. Same here

Hello Art Squirrel! Thanks for the comment! I had convinced the place I teach during the summers to change to Krita for digital painting, but after a couple of summers they switched back to Photoshop. I think marketing was the main reason. I think they decided that pitching that they taught students on the industry standard software went a lot further with the parents. And I love Krita! I find the learning curved to be significantly less because of the pop-up pallet. And I agree that if you teach the fundamentals the software shouldn't matter. One of these days I will have to try out Gimp.

That is a shame but understandable. Hopefully they will be better about Affinity and that might get the ball rolling about other software becoming more acceptable as well. Good channel btw, thanks for making these videos 😊🐿️

@@artsquirrel I hear you! And thanks so much Art Squirrel!! 😊