I've used flash MX 2004 and Adobe livemotion 2.0, and I can say that I like livemotion 2.0 the best, primarily because it's MUCH easier to use and it has almost perfect integration with photoshop and illustrator. Now, some people dismiss easy to use programs as not being powerful, but in this case, that is a mistake. Flasgh MX is powerful, but compared to livemotion, it is bloated and has a considerable learning curve.
Livemotion basically supports importing file formats from other adobe apps, something that flash MX is very weak on. This support allows me to create graphics in PS or IL. and import them into livemotion to be animated in about two simple steps.
Doing the same thing in flash mx requires about 20 steps, and once something is imported, its very difficult to change.
The livemotion timeline is also incredibly streamlined compared to the flash mx one. In LM, each object is treated as a separate entity, so there's no need to assign each object that you want to animate separately to its own layer. Tweening in LM is also automatic. If all you do is make flash animations that have a lot of graphical elements, then Livemotion totally owns flash mx.
However, flash mx is good for flash projects that go beyond simple animations. I use MX for projects that require interactivity, reference a database, etc. These are things that livemotion can't really do.
So, I use both Livemotion and flash mx for my design work, but each has it's own specific purpose as far as I'm concerned, andthese purposes seldom overlap.
Unfortunately, Livemotion 2.0 has been discontinued, and is almost impossible to find now. (Bad move for adobe, they had something great going there. )
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Old aunts used to come up to me at weddings, poking me in the ribs and cackling, telling me, "You're next." They stopped after I started doing the same thing to them at funerals.
Livemotion basically supports importing file formats from other adobe apps, something that flash MX is very weak on. This support allows me to create graphics in PS or IL. and import them into livemotion to be animated in about two simple steps.
Doing the same thing in flash mx requires about 20 steps, and once something is imported, its very difficult to change.
The livemotion timeline is also incredibly streamlined compared to the flash mx one. In LM, each object is treated as a separate entity, so there's no need to assign each object that you want to animate separately to its own layer. Tweening in LM is also automatic. If all you do is make flash animations that have a lot of graphical elements, then Livemotion totally owns flash mx.
However, flash mx is good for flash projects that go beyond simple animations. I use MX for projects that require interactivity, reference a database, etc. These are things that livemotion can't really do.
So, I use both Livemotion and flash mx for my design work, but each has it's own specific purpose as far as I'm concerned, andthese purposes seldom overlap.
Unfortunately, Livemotion 2.0 has been discontinued, and is almost impossible to find now. (Bad move for adobe, they had something great going there. )
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Old aunts used to come up to me at weddings, poking me in the ribs and cackling, telling me, "You're next." They stopped after I started doing the same thing to them at funerals.