Adobe Animate is a versatile application for 2D animation, interactive content, and more. Its comprehensive feature set can seem daunting, but there are numerous free resources to guide you. The r/AdobeAnimate subreddit serves as a valuable forum for questions and shared experiences, while the Adobe Animate Official YouTube Channel and Adobe’s in-house tutorials offer solid foundational knowledge.

For a more structured learning path, our Best Courses Guide (BCG) covers a wide range of topics, from beginner tutorials and hand-drawn animation techniques to advanced courses on morphing and HTML5 banner ads. With Class Central’s extensive collection of over 100 Adobe Animate courses, supplemented by top picks from platforms like Udemy and Skillshare, we’ve curated a list of the best offerings. We’ve also included suggestions from the Reddit community for a well-rounded recommendation.

Click on the shortcuts for more details:

• Our Top Picks
• Why You Should Trust Us
• Courses Overview
• How We Made Our Picks and Tested Them

Our Top Picks

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Why You Should Trust Us

Class Central, a Tripadvisor for online education, has helped 80 million learners find their next course. We’ve been combing through online education for more than a decade to aggregate a catalog of 250,000 online courses and 250,000 reviews written by our users. And we’re online learners ourselves: combined, the Class Central team has completed over 400 online courses, including online degrees.

Courses Overview

• 1 course is free and 6 are paid
• The Adobe Animate subject is followed by 7K learners on Class Central
• Courses in this guide have more than 500K enrollments and views
• The most featured provider is Skillshare with 4 courses.

Best Free Adobe Animate Course for Beginners (YouTube)

Adobe Animate 2021: THE FULL COURSE | Beginners Complete Tutorial by TipTut is a meticulously crafted introduction to animation. Matthew Fryer, the force behind TipTut, has consistently demonstrated dedication to offering professionally made, free content. His commitment is evident in the quality of his tutorials and the vast library of Adobe Animate tutorials available on the TipTut channel.

You’ll learn from the initial storyboard conception to the final animation, learners immerse themselves in a project featuring a character rolling around against a dynamic backdrop. The course encompasses the basics of:

• Ideation and planning
• Frame-by-frame animation
• Automation techniques
• Coloring and effects
• Shape morphing and rigging
• Integration of sound and camera tools.

“Thank you for this wonderful video! It’s incredibly helpful. I’m new to Adobe Animate but was able to follow along smoothly. Granted, my familiarity with other Adobe programs gave me an advantage, which I believe REALLY helped. Your step-by-step process was clear and much appreciated. Thank you so much!” – Wolf-E-Romeo, YouTube learner.

Adobe Animate Crash Course for Beginners (Skillshare)

Dive into the world of 2D animation with 2D Animation For Beginners With Adobe Animate. This crash course equips you with the foundational skills to craft animated videos and GIFs in just over an hour. You’ll explore essential animation concepts, including vector drawings, symbols, keyframes, tweens, and eases.

Guided by Walt Wonderwolk, you’ll discover how to bring characters to life through engaging examples. He breaks down the process of drawing, composing, and animating characters, ensuring you understand the underlying principles. By the end of this course, you’ll create a captivating animated video, spanning 10 to 15 seconds, featuring animated characters or objects. This final project serves as an opportunity to receive feedback from both Walt and fellow learners.

“Excellent course to start with Adobe Animate. In a very simple way, it takes you from not knowing anything to knowing enough to actually create a decent animation. I strongly recommend to anyone who wants to start using this program to do this course. It’s short but has a lot of substance.” – David Santos, Skillshare learner.

Best Hand-Drawn Animation Course (Skillshare) 

In Basics of Hand-Drawn Animation, Johannes Fast, a traditional animator and motion designer, introduces learners to the foundational principles of animation and workflow techniques within Adobe Animate. This course focuses on digital “cel” animation, a traditional technique where objects—typically characters—are hand-drawn on transparent celluloid sheets and set against painted backgrounds, echoing the style of classic 20th-century Disney animations.

Throughout the course, you’ll engage with four assignments, culminating in a final project: an animated walk cycle. This hands-on approach reinforces your understanding and offers an opportunity to share your work to receive feedback from both the instructor and peers.

All necessary resources for the challenges are provided. By the end of the course, you’ll have the essential skills every budding animator needs and a few animated pieces perfect for starting your portfolio or showreel. For those looking to expand their knowledge, Johannes also teaches courses like How to Animate Action Camera Moves Frame by Frame and Traditional Animation: How to Animate Fire.

Best Morphing Animation Course (Skillshare)

Explore the world of morphing with Moving Illustrations: Creating Morphs with Adobe Animate. Guided by Hannah Lau Walker, a 2D animator with a decade of experience, this course introduces the magic of morphing animations, or Morphs—where one image transforms into another through a fluid transition. Throughout the class, you’ll focus on morphing one illustration into another, learning how to design movements that accentuate your unique drawing style.

By the end of the class, you’ll have a new Morph animation and a skill to merge illustrations and bring them to life. You’re also encouraged to share your Morph and receive feedback from Hannah and fellow learners.

“Such a great class. The examples were really helpful for understanding the context of the different animation techniques and how they could be applied to a variety of different types of animation. The text on screen was also great for making the instructions and principles really clear. Overall great lesson!” – Anna Marshall, Skillshare learner.

Best Cartoon Character Design Course (Udemy)

Dive into character design with Designing Cartoon Characters in Adobe Animate. Led by Chad Troftgruben, a skilled instructor with a background in animation and screencasting, you’ll learn to navigate Animate’s vector-based tools. The course walks you through the process of designing, refining, and perfecting your own character, emphasizing the importance of layer hierarchy—a crucial aspect if you plan to rig and animate your character within Adobe Animate.

The curriculum covers working with beziers, points, and bendable lines, inking a full character, using the Paint Bucket for filling objects, and mastering shading and highlighting with the Brush. You’ll also explore masking and gather various tips and tricks for cartoon character design. By the course’s end, you’ll have a cartoon character ready for rigging and animation.

It’s worth noting that this course is based on an older version of Adobe Animate, making it more suitable for those with some prior experience or intermediate learners.

“Thank you so so much, it has been an absolute pleasure following along with this course. I learned so much about the steps to preparing a character for animating. I look forward to the next course in rigging and animating. Sincerely, William Thorn.” – Udemy learner.

For those looking to expand their skills further, Chad offers a subsequent course titled Rigging and Animating in Adobe Animate.

Best Frame For Frame Character Animation Course (Skillshare)

Get into frame-by-frame animation with Learning the Basics of 2D Frame For Frame Character Animation: Animate Your First Character. Led by Valerie, this crash course unveils the essentials of 2D frame-by-frame animation and character design. Each lesson is paired with short assignments, emphasizing that the best way to grasp animation is through hands-on practice. These tasks are well structured, leading you step by step to the creation of your first character animation.

Once you’ve crafted your animation, showcase it on Skillshare. Upload your work and get feedback from both Valerie and fellow learners.

“I love your class! I’ve been struggling with animation because I kept trying to jump straight into it, but your examples helped me break down my character.” – Jay Xeno, Skillshare learner.

Also Great: HTML5 Banner Ads with Adobe Animate (Udemy)

Step up your HTML5 advertising game with Adobe Animate CC 2018 – HTML5 Banner Ads. Guided by Daniel Walter Scott, an Adobe Certified Instructor & Adobe Certified Expert, you’ll explore the creation of banner ads, gain insights into the publishing process, and master a professional workflow, complete with handy shortcuts.

This course is tailored for visual, creative individuals eager to venture into HTML5 banner ads. It’s especially beneficial for those finding it challenging to navigate the evolving landscape of HTML5 advertising. By the course’s conclusion, you’ll be adept at crafting advertising banners compatible with platforms like Google Doubleclick, Google Display Network, and Simek. Moreover, you’ll grasp the foundational principles of HTML5 banner advertising, equipping you to adapt these publishing techniques across various ad networks.

“The lessons are clear, and Daniel is an engaging teacher. This class provides an excellent overview for Adobe Animate newcomers and also delves beyond the basics. A standout moment for me was Dan’s elucidation of the differences between classic and motion tweens.” – Sean, Udemy learner.

How We Made Our Picks and Tested Them

Trying to find “the best” can be daunting, even for those of us who live and breathe online courses. Here’s how I approached this task.

First, I combed through Class Central’s Catalog, reddit communities such as r/adobeanimate, and the internet to find a variety of free and paid open courses, some with certificates.

I extracted information from course syllabi and reviews, and compiled their ratings, leveraging the Class Central database with its thousands of course ratings and reviews written by our users as well as available course provider ratings. I watched some course videos to sample courses I hadn’t already taken.

Then, I defined the scope for these recommendations. An Adobe Animate course can cover various topics. I chose top courses from a range of sub-fields.

Ultimately, I used a combination of data and my own judgment to make these picks. I’m confident these recommendations will serve as an excellent learning path to become an intermediate 2D animator using Adobe Animate.