2 Years After Leaving Adobe - Update

[@Jack_huntakilla]

Adobe's currently ripping its users off with pricing, illogical subscription plans and recently they added a hidden clause in their TOS saying they own certain licensing in users works. Shameless. Affinity seems like a good jump for me.

[@erolalien6524]

They have a half price sale on right now. Just bought their universal license there.

[@Jack_huntakilla]

@@erolalien6524 good ill follow suit and dump adobe altogether !

[@raptormaverick4774]

I recently got Affinity Designer. It says that it’s version 2, but you’ll automatically get the recent 2.5 update. I’m still learning where everything is and how things work, but it’s already on par with Illustrator

[@candidob8683]

Maybe Switch to Open Source Alternatives. Here is a list of 10 Free Open Source Alternatives to Adobe Creative Suite. Make the switch people!!!! 1. GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program): Alternative to Adobe Photoshop 2. Inkscape: Alternative to Adobe Illustrator 3. Scribus: Alternative to Adobe InDesign 4. OpenShot: Alternative to Adobe Premiere 5. Synfig Studio: Alternative to Adobe Animate 6. darktable: Alternative to Adobe Lightroom 7. Natron: Alternative to Adobe After Effects 8. Ardour: Alternative to Adobe Audition 9. Master PDF Editor: Alternative to Adobe Acrobat [Non-FOSS]

[@ukraineball953]

and now they are being sued over the cancellation fees...

[@MathieuGodboutComma]

I made the switch too in 2020. I'm professional graphic designer. I've worked with adobe, quark, corel, freehand since 1995. Now I'm Adobe free with Affinity suite, Davinci, Blender (3d and 2d animation). The lack is on the PDF side, but I use PDF studio from Qoppa and Packzview for accurate color separation proofing. It's not the price that bug me, it's the renting concept. Like my mechanic, I want to own my tools. When I retire, I want to be able to do little job for hobby or help friends and not have to pay monthly fees all my life.

[@MichaelSturgill]

That's awesome! I'm glad you found things that work for you!

[@randommm-light]

Y, renting tools .. I used my photoshop version 3 (yes 3) until there was a version 10.. almost a decade without upgrading. Nowadays, procreate is my pencil.

[@willv88]

Is Blender easy to pick up for 2D animations? Just like Michael mentioned - need a solid AE alternative. Looking to creating some really simple animations for some of my videos.

[@MathieuGodboutComma]

@@willv88 Yes, I did 2d "cartoon" animation in Blender. Davinci resolve is a great option too if your 2d is more "motion design"

[@michael-orian5773]

Ew... You just gave me PTSD flashbacks when you mentioned Quark

[@Nedvio]

Thanks. I scrapped Adobe, because there is no reason for a hobbyist to pay that much money without a return. Resolve and Affinity seem really great - I will give them a try.

[@marcoshuayai3995]

I liie it, is good program

[@Georgevideocliper]

If you are hobbyist pirate version is ok

[@meroinheroin]

​@@Georgevideocliperit's ridiculously hard to pirate Adobe products on MacOS

[@zugo-tg7125]

@@GeorgevideocliperNot even worth it, on Windows it’s counter-intuitive compared to other similar programs.

[@WanderWheels-bd8ti]

@@Georgevideocliper too much risk for a hobby. cracks are annoying

[@Chandra_Sekhar_Reddy_M]

Here in India, Small businesses are really struggling to pay for year on year cost increase and subscription to Adobe. We are trying for alternatives to adobe and we sure replace it.

[@ashishkaushik1790]

True

[@Magnus579]

Har jagah India ghusana zaruri hai? Aur koi dikh rha hai apne desh ke baare me randi rona karte huye?

[@criticalchai]

affinity has a sale going on and no subscription.

[@yxmichaelxyyxmichaelxy3074]

Odd since India were one of the greatest users of our Corel suites.

[@Chandra_Sekhar_Reddy_M]

@@yxmichaelxyyxmichaelxy3074 in reality most of the users are still using the old perpetual licensee and counting on subscription is very less

[@rustygear9370]

Affinity are halving their prices right now.

[@KeithDobie]

I updated all my Affinity apps to V2 this week! Good price.

[@101touchapps]

and i totally love them 😅

[@101touchapps]

​@@KeithDobiefuck yeah. am waiting for payday to do the same

[@howardgreenberg754]

As great as the Affinity prices are, compared to Adobe, if Affinity prices were twice what they are, their products would still be a bargain.

[@endynight8888]

@@KeithDobie as I had the previous version it was even cheaper for me. I love affinity

[@DahRahzor]

The one and only thing I HATE at job/client meetings: They: "Do you make use of the Adobe suite?" Me: "No, I use Affinity and Inkscape" They: "Ew... better call my cousin to do the job" Adobe managed to monopolize the client/employer opinion about what are the tools of the job, so I came to the realization that it is just better to nod when they ask about the capability of using the Adobe suite, and just do the job with the tools I am accustomed to. The result is just the same, after all.

[@Michael-NZ]

like that approach a lot!

[@sfnyc]

That is what made them part of the problem. Now that they think they are indispensable there will be the need for client re-education through a no-need-for-adobe movement that should take the whole social media by storm with memes and real life example demonstrating how adobe is not necessary (not that it ever was for those knowing how to use alternatives) since they've got greedy and heavy and slow while others are offering much better tools and not only for the price.

[@BenDurham]

I'd switched from Premiere to Davinci a while back BUT was missing After Effects... So I jumped into forcing myself to learn Fusion for this upcoming motion-graphics heavy client video. So far, it's a stellar replacement to After Effects once you wrap your head around the node system!

[@MichaelSturgill]

Awesome! The node system certainly took me some time to understand, but I fully agree that it's a great replacement. Thank you for the comment!

[@antonvoloshin9833]

Exactly! When you make an effort to actually study alternative instruments you immediately come to understanding how crappy Adobe products are, especially for their pricetag.

[@roguewavecreative]

@@antonvoloshin9833Adobe unfortunately is not unlike so many software companies where the users become the betas. One thing I’ve never understood about adobe is is why do they not go through their main programs and streamline them it just seems like they keep making them bigger and bigger and that’s not good overall and they’re so many things especially in illustrator, which is my main focus where I just never use it I mean, that’s what I did not find a big curve going over to affinity designer because it’s got all the good basics and some actually cool stuff the way that it’s set up and their user interface is so much easier and it’s so much faster and again it’s not perfect, but this last version is really close, it really is.

[@nemesis1134]

It was tough to learn AE, but remember liking nodes much better from Shake long ago from Apple. Fusion sounds interesting.

[@RossPullen]

As an Affinity evangelist, I gotta say they constantly run sales. I bought Affinity V1 in 2017 for less than $100, and then 5 years later upgraded to the V2 apps for $120. The value is just incredible when compared to Adobe. If V2 lasts another 5 years, that'll be $120 compared to $3,300 if you paid for Adobe for that period. People can complain about 'missing features', but I'm not sure the Adobe features are worth $3000 for most users.

[@MichaelSturgill]

That's another reason why I love the Affinity suite. I originally got version 1 for half off. I'm saving so much money now

[@maboleth]

Why Affinity photo isn't native on Linux? For real? I'd be one of the first in line to buy it and use it. I think they neglected that market that doesn't have anything except GIMP. Affinity would be in Linux what PS is in the Windows world.

[@dingushussey4100]

Adobe relies quite heavily on having been without competitors for many years, I have been using their products professionally for 30 years and since the advent of the cloud and subscription only I have become more and more frustrated with them. Took me a while to migrate to Affinity designer and photo, but now I have I am completely satisfied. Affinity doesn't offer some of the features available, but works so much better than modern Adobe apps and does the fundamentals and primary processes far more efficiently. Adobe is now relying on brand loyalty and laziness. I only hope Affinity keep their integrity.

[@roguewavecreative]

@@dingushussey4100as someone that worked in Adobe for 2 decades (right out of school) I am really blown away with how Affinity works. The thing I have learned is yes there are certain things Affinity does not do BUT with 2.0 and also realizing there is so much in Adobe AI I never used it made the transition much easier. I really think Canca is sincere with what they want to do. My hope is Affinity really becomes the go to for graphic designers and Canva gets real pros to sign u- and talk it up.

[@GrymmsPlace]

Am going to check out Affinity Photo. Have already paid for a year of Adobe. I don't, and have never, used Adobe Cloud for anything, but I do like Lightroom (and Photoshop to lesser degree). Will see whether APhoto works well. If it does I may just take the hit and sever association with Adobe. I do suspect that ALL the various houses will leverage over to some AI. Ultimately, AI needs to be fed contetn to work so I just think it's a matter of time.

[@uniworkhorse]

I'm so happy to see the market re-fragment. I am curious to see when Resolve will become the new "industry standard" with all these new editors learning Resolve because it's free nowadays. Hopefully they don't get too comfy and we see a video editing arms race!

[@MichaelSturgill]

I mean, it's probably a big possibility that Resolve would become the new industry standard. It already kind of is for color grading, so I'm sure we'll see some sort of shift to it, especially now that a lot of KZbinrs and smaller companies are making the switch.

[@bartekmuczyn]

Resolve IS industry standard. Almost all best film and vfx companies use it for color grading.

[@ryanfeller5765]

Black magic’s advantage is they’re a hardware company first. They essentially give out codes like candy with hardware sales.

[@williamshakespeare9815]

I would say it is already. I work for a production company and all the editors use Resolve. And now Adobe are using our work to train their AI, I can see even more people switching over.

[@ayanshahid1381]

it is used by hollywood. I think

[@asphaltandtacos]

Resolve has made so much progress over the last two years. They did add a multi merge node in the Fusion page. It is not perfect but you do get more flexibility when arranging the layer order of images in the composition. Color grading is really the best because you can do it in a group. Affinity Photo is about to make it back into my pipeline.

[@MichaelSturgill]

You are spot on. I love all the updates Resolve has been getting lately. I actually didn't know they added multi merge nodes into fusion, that's awesome. Thank you for your comment!

[@animatewithdermot]

Regarding After Effects: if you can get a hold of CS5 or CS6, that'll allow you to own the last decent ish versions, have access to many of the filters, etc., and it won't come with CC bloat / cost.

[@jm_sc]

Sorry what are Counter Strike 5 and 6?

[@tomaszh2128]

@@jm_sc I hope u r joking

[@jm_sc]

@@tomaszh2128 well yes but still dont know what is CS5 or CS6

[@TomaszGracz-qo6qk]

@@jm_sc Creative Suite 6 was last version of Adobe software which You could pay once and use it forever

[@axelsippel]

@@jm_sc Earlier versions of Adobe products were called CS which stands for Creative Suite. Nowadays its Creative Cloud, which makes sense since earlier you actually owned the products.

[@paprika2736]

My alternative for Photoshop is Clip Studio Paint. It's a paid software with focus on drawing illustrations, comics/manga and animating clips and gets updated and new features on a nearly regular basis and is on its way to become an industry standard in Japan for Animators and Mangakas.

[@criticalchai]

i love this software for drawing. a little better than Krita. A few more tools that i really enjoy that keep me using it

[@Khiara882]

@@criticalchai what sucks that it is one time purchase just on pc, you have to subscribe monthly/yearly if you're on other devices.

[@Yarkspiri]

Moho is an animation software which might be useful for parts that need to be animated. I've switched over from Adobe a while ago as well, and I love it. Between Davinci Resolve, Affinity and blender I've pretty much been able to do whatever I want.

[@MichaelSturgill]

Thanks for sharing! I haven't heard of that yet. I'm glad what you have works for you!

[@Nixerman]

3 years here. 🎉💪🏻🙌🏻

[@gearsofgames]

I love the fact that I got an Adobe AD on this video! 😁 Thanks for video, always interesting to hear about peoples experiences leaving Adobe! I am still connected to them due to the fact that I teach some of their software. But teaching is drying up, so I am getting more and more serious about dumping them, hard!

[@nemesis1134]

Having taught the entire suite of Adobe products for 26 years, I'm comfortable moving on and finding alternatives and teaching those to most of my students. It helps to see others and what they are doing.

[@gearsofgames]

@@nemesis1134 Yeah, with the recent sale on Afinity I am thinking about doing the same. Makes sense, both since teaching has almost dried up completely with the Adobe Software and seems like people want to move on to something better!

[@Tomothy-e3b]

Jetbrains programming software (pycharm, IDEa etc) is subscription based. But it at least has a perpetual fallback license so you can keep using an older version if you allow the subscription to lapse

[@unlockthepicture]

Great video! I am stil using Adobe as my current student license still goes till November this year. But I already bought Affinity Suite during the 50% sale and installed Danvinci Resolve. After that I'll switch fully to Affinity and Davinci.

[@falekavamahe4631]

Thanks for the quick precise and no click bait video, you are the man!

[@overcomingwithin]

i even left pirated adobe products 😂

[@michaelhango555]

Me too 😅😂😂😂😂

[@star.kleio1]

ahaha same

[@Pure-Minty]

can't get updates and you never know what you are loading into your machine?

[@sylvy16]

@@Pure-Mintyif you know how to do it correctly, the second part is not an issue. there are many resources on how to be safe when sailing. yes you won’t get updates and at this point it would be better to use other programs just because they are so much better than adobe

[@jasim-dev]

me too, now im using gimp + photogimp mod

[@candidob8683]

There also some Open Source Alternatives that some may consider... 1. GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program): Alternative to Adobe Photoshop 2. Inkscape: Alternative to Adobe Illustrator 3. Scribus: Alternative to Adobe InDesign 4. OpenShot: Alternative to Adobe Premiere 5. Synfig Studio: Alternative to Adobe Animate 6. darktable: Alternative to Adobe Lightroom 7. Natron: Alternative to Adobe After Effects 8. Ardour: Alternative to Adobe Audition 9. Master PDF Editor: Alternative to Adobe Acrobat [Non-FOSS]

[@tristan1805]

Meh, the sun goes up for free. Open source software is almost always buggy there not a lot of people who will spend hundreds of hours programming some feature for free.

[@TheKevphil]

Heard some really bad things about Scribus: Hard to use, buggy, non-standard. I haven't used it much, and only for limited purposes, but Affinity *Publisher* would seem to be well worth learning for its modest price tag.

[@Andriej69]

>recommending GIMP unironically Thx but no, thanks. Tried that already and I urge anyone to steer clear

[@roberttranceedm]

Those are no match for Davinci and Affinity level professionality. No open source software is.

[@CarlosGonzalez-ex2ku]

Veo que no conoces mucho acerca del software libre. Si bien existen muchas aplicaciones basura, hay algunas muy profesionales no solamente para diseño de piezas visuales sino para otros propósitos ​y te animo a investigar @@tristan1805

[@andystiller3793]

Great video. I had the misfortune to use Photoshop elements. That out me of Adobe. When then went to distribution only I ever straight to get editors and Affinity photo. I find it amusing that I got an Adobe after effects advert directly after your video.

[@MichaelSturgill]

Thank you. I've never tried elements, but I've heard some not so great things about it. That's funny that you got an ad for After effects. It's like they know we're talking about them, lol.

[@alisonwilson9749]

@@MichaelSturgill I got a CC one right before the vid started!😆

[@pedroguardiola630]

Thank you very much for the information you share. Yesterday I just finished with Adobe, due to its new terms that violate the privacy of users, so this video helps me a lot in looking for alternatives.

[@MarioDuch]

I’m finally canceling my Adobe photography plan this month and hopefully switching to Photomator and Pixelmator Pro I really like how they work and that they are a one time purchase for super cheap!

[@ColdCoffeePhotography]

Captureone no longer makes financial sense to anybody but professionals, you only get updates on the subscription model and its pricing frankly makes adobe look like a bargain - but I do agree with the rest of what you say

[@MichaelSturgill]

I can fully understand that. Capture One is wonderful, but it is quite expensive. Thank you for your comment!

[@trushreitsam5802]

From what I know, Autograph from Left Angle seems to be the best layer-nased compositing and mo-graph software. Its workflow is extremely focused on batch editing. Cavalry is also a freemium and very interesting layer-based alternative but more for mo-graphs.

[@ViralKiller]

I swapped Photoshop for GIMP, OpenToonz is superior to Animate anyway, and After Effects for Nuke. Only thing keeping me at Windows is Cinema 4D

[@cazmatism]

hey, blender can free you from windows; it runs better on linux

[@kat_n]

Incredibly helpful. Thank you!

[@MichaelSturgill]

No problem!

[@vasiovasio]

Great overview! Thank you for the list Michael!

[@MichaelSturgill]

No problem! Thank you for watching.

[@marlonphotography2864]

I have watched 100's of videos like yours and truely appreciate that I'm not alone in the unfair pricing and policies of Adobe. I love what Affinity is doing but I'm surprised that no one has mentioned Corel products which Adobe has copied many processes and filters from since the beginning over 30 years ago because they were afraid of Corel moving in on their market share. CorelDraw is still the most powerful vector app in Windows and if you use it you will understand why it is the number one software for vehicle wrap design, embroidery, label applications and a lot more. Their one time price for their suite with vector , photo, ocr, font management & more is a one time price of $400 + for life. It may be a little more than Affinity but they have been around as long as Adobe. I still use Adobe as well as Corel and will be adding Affinity soon, but I believe Corel is a viable option for some too. Just wanted to mention this. "Cheers"

[@TheArtofGuitar]

Final Cut Pro X for me, love it. Now can I get a good Illustrator alternative? I'd probably switch if so.

[@Zionz529]

Affinity designer is a great illustrator alternative I've heard.

[@obsidiryn]

its like apples ecosystem once you start with adobe its hard to get out of but im slowly gonna test out affinity photo for their one time purchase and hopefully transition into it bc the pricing for adobe and subscriptions in general are so just so annoying and getting out of hand the only adobe app i would be concerned about is losing adobe acrobat unless theres a suitable alternative out there as well for a one time purchase

[@WeekdayWeekend]

4:10 they also continued to update version 1.0 to keep it running on newer hardware (Apple Silicon)

[@MohammadAliFX]

I have left Adobe for more than 5 years, since I had the chance to try Resolve cos of a client how asked me to use resolve, so, since then I use Resolve for all of my work: Video Editing, Motion Graphics, Sound Design and even my social media designs. The software that I really miss from adobe is the Media Encoder.

[@LotusEater14]

Luminar Neo locks features behind the subscription wall. That's the only thing I hate about them. I bought a perpetual license, just for them to change what would be included in the perpetual license, making it different to the subscription model.

[@aldebaran_]

I left Adobe Photoshop for Affinity Photo when I started doing my graphics stuff on an iPad Pro back in 2019 and never looked back! Even that I’m back to a Mac now, I still use Affinity Photo

[@eraykaya4748]

what will happen when you need to send the source file to the costumers? Will you tell them to use Affinty Photo? 😂

[@zugo-tg7125]

@@eraykaya4748It can export as psd, no issues there.

[@alisonwilson9749]

@@eraykaya4748 For me, as I work for private clients, they don't give a stuff what programme I use so long as what I produce for them is what they want. Which is nice. And as the printer I currently use for any print work is fine with it, I'll just send them all my work if other printers won't splurge a whole 60 quid on affinity if necessary.

[@AnksRandomShenanigans]

id love a lightroom affinity program!

[@ryanfeller5765]

If they made that I would try to switch instantly

[@LV4EVR]

I recently heard about darktable, but haven't tried it. You?

[@omegakite]

CaptureOne is way better than Lightroom always was not just in terms of tools and UI but also faster and more importantly Accurate color reproduction (need very precise testing if you wanna find out the difference)

[@AnksRandomShenanigans]

@@omegakite Okay. Then. i'd love a CAPTUREONE type version but Affinity

[@gavinarnoldgoodman3248]

@@ryanfeller5765 same

[@manic221]

My biggest peeve with adobe isn't just that it's sub (which is annoying) but as a hobbyist who only really uses photoshop for fun have never made a penny from it and just occasionally use it for quickly editing some photos or making sure I don't forget the only thing I actually learned in University - there should be a MUCH cheaper option for personal use cases/hobby cases the fact that everyone pays the same flat fee regardless £9.99 a month here in the UK is ridiculous. Long story short I've had enough and partially buoyed by the Black Friday deal on affinity right now I've decided to finally knock off photoshop. (at least I will once my annual subscription ends)

[@MichaelSturgill]

Yeah I can relate to that. Up until very recently it was just a hobby for me and I hated spending so much on it. I'm glad you got the black friday deal. I hope it all works out well for you!

[@BreMue]

Exactly! You have to be all or nothing - I built my resume in in design and dabble in illustrator projects and since I got a student deal at $20/month I have been paying 240+tax a year (at a discount!) For years and I've just been throwing money away scared of switching because I can't get that $20 a month again if I cancel

[@alisonwilson9749]

When I looked this week, PS was 20 quid a month, ID similar, also Acrobat. It would cost me 60 quid a month for what I need.

[@hruettimann]

Maybe Autograph from Leftangle would be a good layer based After Effects replacement? I personally use Fusion for my work (mostly complicated compositing and retouching) and actually prefer the node based workflow for these tasks.

[@StarseedLightcodes]

My combo for the Audition alternative is Ableton + DJ. Studio. I also have not yet found an alternative for After Effects, but it's not something I use that often, so I use Cinema 4D for some of the effects, but I believe there is Apple Motion which runs in conjunction with Final Cut Pro and it looks like it could perhaps be a good alternative to After Effects if you are on Mac. Perhaps Blackmagic Fusion with Resolve?

[@SpartecusNL]

A good alternative for after effects is Fusion inside of davinci resolve. It has a learning curve with node based system but its so powerfull

[@kurnikoff]

You can replace a lot of After Effects motion graphics features with Cavalry or Fable btw. Rive can fill some gaps too.

[@displacerkatsidhe]

Thanks for making the comprehensive list! I will have to go through this list later today!

[@FanVidder72]

Pure greed. I'm currently doing a graphic design course at college. I feel like I have to get Adobe CC so that I can access Illustrator, InDesign, Acrobat and Photoshop at home, so that I don't need to use the college computers when I'm not in class. At the moment, I'm using Affinity, Pixelmator and VectorStyler. We use Mac at college, and I have a Mac at home. Although I'm managing with Affinity's suite, I still feel that I'm missing out on some of the professional tools that only Adobe can offer. I just hate the grip that Adobe has on the customer. If you're working for yourself or a company, you can probably factor in the sub fee when you're billing the client, but if you're using it for your own needs, it's a total rip-off. Thanks for sharing this video and letting us know that there are alternatives out there.

[@Florianski]

Just pirate it.

[@solarmeds]

r/GenP

[@Moportfolio]

Maybe you already know by now, but if you miss the motion graphic part from After Effects, I think Cavalry might be worth looking into for you. Its free with the option to upgrade to the pro plan and for animating text and shapes it works very well and I feel like these things are even easier to do than in After Effects. Like you can set a keyframe to "anticipate in" and it saves so much work.

[@worriedpixels]

I've been looking for an alternative to AE for simple animated characters I'm working on for a game - thank you! I'd never heard of Cavalry until seeing your comment, and it looks perfect. I'd also suggest Rive for vector animation. It has a free tier too and runs in browser or as a downloaded app. It also does interactive motion graphics using state machines. I'm going to try Rive and Cavalry to see which I prefer.

[@visualbree]

Adobe is free, if you know you know.

[@evgenikolev]

Jack Sparrow forever

[@ExzaktVid]

If buying isn’t owning, then pirating isn’t stealing.

[@Bodom1978]

But you're still locking your skillset to Adobe so they got you in the future. Sailing the high seas if running a business opens you up to serious legal repercussions. You're better off learning how to use alternatives unless you're a hobbiest.

[@edemkwasidzah1452]

🤣🤣🤣 i tell you bro

[@xnegusx]

One Piece ​@@evgenikolev

[@thedaveko]

you should try calvary for motion work. simliar, but different because it's procedural approach.

[@jiveaces]

I’m really tempted but I just don’t see affinity photo or anything as a true photoshop replacement. Sure there are a time of great photo editing apps but I do a lot of graphic design work, flyers, posters, social graphics etc. Is there anything that has the power and toolset of ps or anything close?

[@MichaelSturgill]

If you're mostly doing graphic design work I would recommend affinity designer or the other alternatives I have for illustrator on my list. It really comes down to the features you think you need, if Photoshop has what you need and it's not breaking the bank then there's no shame in continuing to use it. Hope this helps!

[@jiveaces]

@@MichaelSturgill ​​⁠great, thank you. Budget isn’t an issue, I was more swayed by the ethical stance many have been taking over their T&C but I haven’t seen an update. My yearly sub is up this month so trying to figure out if a new learning curve is going to be viable.

[@WLange-pp1dk]

There's in fact an analternative to After Effetcs, which is Left Angle Autograph. It's not cheap, though.

[@gavinarnoldgoodman3248]

I can't seem to find anything for batch processing like I would do in lightroom. that's the main thing i am still having in there for.

[@UTAZCO.Overland]

Besides pricing, Adobe's T&Cs are what made me switch - Resolve for video, Affinity Photo for the heavy photo lifting (aka Photoshop,) Luminar Neo for the organization and raw converter (aka Lightroom.) In the past I have also used Photo Mechanic (Plus) for organization, but Neo now has all the search capabilities and organization tools I need, so... :)

[@FlameForgedSoul]

Necroposting (referencing 2D Mograph in AE specifically) to say: Fusion, embrace nodes. We would also suggest a gander at Cavalry with the caveat that it is subscription only, but best in class at what it does without having to learn Processing/P5.JS/Insert Preferred Creative Coding Framework Here. Few think of it, but Blender is also an option for such things these days. Particularly if you possess any traditional animation chops.

[@Argyll9846]

I left Adobe over 3 years ago. I have no regrets and miss none of their programs.

[@orangeeeeeee]

What programs do you use instead?

[@Argyll9846]

@@orangeeeeeee On1 - does everything I need and it's not on a subscription, plus I can upgrade when and if I want. I do have an older version of Photoshop that on a perpetual license and do use it a handful of time a year, but it's not my go to software.

[@orangeeeeeee]

@@Argyll9846 Nice. Never heard of On1 before. But I'll make sure to check it out, thanks!

[@pressed0n615]

My main two reasons for not leaving are 1. After Effects and 2. working with several different teams where we rely on the imdustry standard format sharing … Generative fill is also something that makes it a lot easier. So sadly i wont be making a switch soon

[@Dexter101x]

The one caveat that that AP doesn’t have is camera calibration/profile, this would be a game changer

[@FotixTheMonster]

As a small fellow content creator im happy that there are alternatives ways to still become a creator even if you are broke, personally im still using premiera and well not photoshop cause i dont know how to use it yet, also im not paying i have a (free) old versions so im good for now, Davinci as much i know they using it on movie studios too? if i remember correctly AND the fact that im buying its amazing also i didnt knew about affinity but now i learn from you and well when it will be more nesecery for bigger projects in the future i want to buy both of them but for now im still a small creator and learning at the same time (even that im on this platform for 3,5 years) so im just try to be better and when ill needed for sure ill buy both, so yeah thanks dude for this useful information it helps alot really 👍

[@MichaelSturgill]

That's awesome! And yeah Davinci Resolve was used to edit or color grade Deadpool 2, alien covenant, and a ton of other movies. Thanks for the comments and the nice words! I really appreciate it

[@JohnCollins-iy1pw]

I still use the Nik Collection (free version still availible to download,although I think it is a bit dated.However it still works so what the hell)

[@MichaelSturgill]

Nice! I'm glad it's working well for you

[@nateroo1486]

Clip Studio Paints a good digital painting and art program alternative to Photoshop, so long as you're not on mobile. Mobile has a required subscription where Desktop and Mac have perpetual licenses with a subscription option

[@Dexter101x]

I’m still on cs6 and lr6, but I still use affinity photo and designer

[@peterdanyliw9506]

Still Non subscription CS6 for me to work on intricate details, but open raw files in Capture One first.

[@designobservatory]

Hi. I made that switch in 2018. Never regretted it, even less so now. The only thing I could not find a replacement for is Adobe Acrobat - just for checking of print color separations. So If anyone knows another solution that would be great.

[@moover123]

Thanks for this video. I was looking for budgets alternatives for adobe products for a while now. This video is very valuable to me.

[@LucasSaturn]

One major mistake in this video: The photography plan is not double what it used to be. The version you're showing at 0:53 is the 1TB option, not the 20GB Photography plan which is still $10/month. All they've done is moved the 1TB version to the front page, and moved the 20GB version to the Photo category.

[@MichaelSturgill]

Oh. I didn't realize this. Thank you for telling me!

[@alisonwilson9749]

I couldn't find that option. From UK, it seems if I wanted PS, it would be £20pm.

[@LucasSaturn]

@@alisonwilson9749 I'm from the UK, it's definitely there but as £9.98/month instead of in USD.

[@Mopsie]

whats up with the bitrate? or is it just me?

[@nerds-nonsense]

def not just u

[@khaoscero]

Seems like Houdini is the replacement for After Effect, I mean certainly its hugely popular I just dont know if it covers exactly the same scope, Houdini is more VFX proper

[@adamkoch212]

I work as a cinematographer, and I've scrapped Adobe completely maybe half a year back. Couldn't be happier with the decision. I use Davinci and Affinity now. Works like a charm, and I have not a single monthly cost.

[@chimeforest]

VSDC Video Editor is a decent video editor. The base version is free. I think the Pro version is $30/year? but I've never needed any of it's features.

[@peterhoehsl]

Have a look at Autograph from Left Angle for an AE alternative.

[@EzyYoutube]

Ive been using Davinci well over a year and still love it! But as mainly a Photographer i find it more difficult to commit to buying a software, What would you say in terms of precise color/Lighting manipulation is the most simulair to the performance of light room? I photograph mainly (but am not limited to) landscapes and wildlife.

[@orangeofmars2835]

No mention of ACDSee. I keep on going back to ACDSee Ultimate after keeping on trying to use Lightroom and Photoshop. ACDSee is just easier for me and the way I work. Lightroom Catalogs for me are just to cumbersome. I can use ACDSee and go to my manually created folder system without having to bring everything into Lightroom Catalogs first.

[@MichaelSturgill]

I've added it to the list. Thank you for the suggestion!

[@karamsulaiman6605]

Crazy! Just watched your previous video! (a few minutes ago) How timely!!! Thanks for the intelligent video update. If you could please answer these question Michael, that would be greatly appreciated! 1) How long did you use Adobe? 2) How long did it take across the various platforms to learn them? Cheers!

[@MichaelSturgill]

haha that's some good timing. Thank you for watching! As for your questions, I used Adobe for about 7 or 8 years because I learned most of the programs in high school and just kept going with them. Photoshop took me about 2 months before I started feeling pretty confident in my abilities with it, but I already had some experience with gimp, so I wasn't starting from scratch. But with After Effects and Premiere I did start from scratch, and they took me probably around 6 months to a year to start feeling somewhat comfortable with my abilities. I had a pretty great teacher, and I took some time outside of school to learn more about them from tutorials on KZbin. For some contrast, Affinity Photo probably took less than a month to feel comfortable in because it's very similar to photoshop and DaVinci Resolve took around 1 - 2 months to feel comfortable coming from premiere, but I still feel like I'm learning the Fusion panel. I hope this answers your questions. Thanks for your comment!

[@karamsulaiman6605]

​@@MichaelSturgill indeed! (can't believe it). Thanks for taking the time to give such a comprehensive response. Do you know if companies have also made the switch? Cheers!

[@MichaelSturgill]

@@karamsulaiman6605 I don't really know any specific companies, but I had several people tell me in my last video about how their company switched or that their college started teaching the Affinity Suite over Adobe

[@karamsulaiman6605]

@@MichaelSturgill Very interesting!!! Are there some really complex features that only Adobe can deliver to clients? Cheers Karam

[@MichaelSturgill]

@@karamsulaiman6605 I mean, I can admit that one thing Adobe's software has over alternatives is that Adobe is sort of industry leading and has had a lot longer to be developed over alternatives. It kinda depends on what software we are talking about, but Adobe has had the time to develop these advanced tools. Alternatives are catching up though. An example would be Luminar Neo's AI features are fantastic when compared to Adobe's features in Photoshop.

[@mofi3641]

Maybe you should try DXO. I left Adobe about 20 years ago and don't regret it. The transition isn't easy. I still have their standalone version CS6 but I try to avoid it as much as possible.

[@Servbot31]

Never used any adobe on my end. I do digital art and first I was using Sketchbook then Krita, until I saw an artist (around 2017) that said they switched to Clip Studio Paint instead of Photoshop. I saw one of their tutorial on the software, and wanted to try it. Never considered using anything else since then ^^

[@davidpearson2039]

Hmmmmm... The photography plan pricing in the UK has changed for a long time. I've been on the £9.99 20GB Photography plan for a number of years now and the price hasn't shifted. There is the £19.99 1TB photography plan though. I just checked the US pricing and there is still the $9.99 20GB plan there as well.

[@alisonwilson9749]

I could only find PS for £20 pm this week. What with needing ID and Acrobat as well, I was looking at £650 a year.

[@ItsNifer]

In the link for alternatives, I feel like MAGIX Vegas Pro should be listed as a Premiere Pro alternative...

[@TerenceKearns]

speaking of AE replacements, depending on your goals, Swift Edit from RT software will be coming out soon and it's based on Unreal Engine.

[@kenthhagstrom]

I miss an app for organizing my very big photo library (with keywords and such), I've used Lightroom Classic for this purpose before but I haven't found a good alternative for this, yet! Any recommendations?

[@amarachibigelow8178]

I can't wait to try out affinity designer out on the ipad this summer. It looks like fun. I like their ui.

[@KilianMuster]

For me (and I'm Mac only) Apple Motion does everything in regards to compositing and motion graphics that I would've done in AE in the past, but it does it in half the time and at 1/10 of the price of AE.

[@nerdynautilus5373]

What’s a good alternative to Lightroom for photo library management and not just for editing?

[@V_0six]

DigiKam for photo management

[@LV4EVR]

Someone suggested darktable. I'd never heard of it, but it looks good so far.

[@MD0K]

yeah, ae is the one that's hard to replace. I think apples motion does the job but it's still like five years behind in functionality, I'm gonna try out cavalry but I really hope apple takes the hint and really beafs up the pro apps

[@SW-lw6mt]

Some have used Cavalry as and AE alternative.

[@mwhite212]

I've heard good things about Cavalry for motion graphics.

[@katherinelangford981]

I have super old Adobe CS6, and for my stuff that works. I use mostly, 99% of the time, Illustrator. (Setting up signs to print or vinyl cut, menus, business cards, that sort of thing). But if i ever need newer features or it stops working I'll be looking to Inkscape and/or Affinity. About to learn all about Inkscape now. Just to have an alterntaive and it was a free download so we shall see.

[@wj0h]

Hey @MichaelSturgill, I just recently learned about Autograph from Left Angle. It should be a layerbased compositor replacing AfterEffects fully (Not like Nuke/Natron and other node based compositors including fusion), it has a perpetual licence option or a subscribtion service. Its avalable on Linux, Mac and Windows so also that is no issue. Does anyone has expirience with that? I would like to know if this is the last bastion that adobe maybe will lose. Maybe you wanna try that? I would be really curious to see a video about it.

[@MichaelSturgill]

Yeah I've had some others mention it but I havent been able to check it out yet. It looks interesting though

[@unconnectedgaming8299]

i got a fockin Adobe ad at the beginning of the video!! THEY CANT KEEP GETTING AWAY WITH THIS

[@jfonsecaesilva]

what about inkspace for vectors?

[@LV4EVR]

Very powerful, but very quirky. Crashes for me a lot, too. No CMYK ... yet. Affinity Designer is much better. Get the entire suite/universal license on the cheap at the moment. Cheers.

[@MrClassicRobot]

I must be the only one who hasn't had Premiere crash constantly. I still love Premiere, but I haven't used it for a while because most of my video editing has been in Resolve. Thats only because I've done a lot of video where I used my ATEM Extreme ISO, and the ISO recordings are in Resolve, so it just makes it easier to edit in Resolve from the start. I just bought the Affinity Suite on a discount yesterday because I've been wanting to try it but buying it at full price didn't make sense at the time. I'm also starting to feel like switching outright is in my best interest right now because of the price of the subscriptions, and the latest updates to Adobe's terms of service. It's hard thought because I really do just like Premiere, After Effects, Illustrator, InDesign, and Photoshop.

[@KingdomDigitalServices]

For motion graphics, try Cavalry.

[@BillAngelos]

Where can you get davinci without the card? I just checked this weekend and they were pushing me to resellers to buy it.

[@tobiaslofi]

Been using Affinity since the first came out in 2015, liked it at first, bought all 3 apps as they were first announced to support them. But on all Macs that I tried just opening Affinity takes 2-3times longer than Photoshop (which already takes long time) and as I now get Adobe-subscription from my job I went back to Adobe for now. Actually missed a few things and functions.

[@managadzed]

I want to leave Adobe too but still cannot find a good set of apps that would fit in my ideal workflow. Briefly, I want to just have my iPad with me on a location and start there, but then pick it up on my Mac.

[@jakobw135]

Are these alternatives you mentioned, compatible with - Linux, also?

[@artigotale]

I made the switch , it was scary but I’m here to say “ don’t be afraid “. I switched to Affinity and Corel. Very happy to say, this was a great decision. Cheers?

[@dodepixels1887]

Even as a Creative Cloud subscriber, I decided to switch from Premiere Pro to Final Cut Pro. I'm also trying Apple Motion now. That's certainly not After Effects, but I can do enough with it now. But I am mainly a graphic designer and am considering purchasing Affinity V2 universal. Unfortunately, where I'm really stuck with Adobe is with their font offering. I think they really tie a lot of people in with that. I once had a large font collection but postscript. When the Adobe library became available I stopped updating my own collection. That was a big mistake. Fonts are incredibly expensive…

[@alisonwilson9749]

V2 has fewer fonts than CS5. I will miss Goudy OS, which I really like. OTOH, Palatino Linotype is on there, which I missed having on PS5. Affinity is now doing 6 months free trial, BTW.

[@DavidDLee]

I used Lightroom when Adobe had a perpetual license. I was never willing to lease my software. That was a ripoff I was not willing to accept. A long time ago, I had Premier, also on a perpetual license, but it was so buggy, I stopped using it. I hear it is still buggy...

[@drsuppan]

I would change if all the plugins would work. does anyone have experience with Topaz and DxO plugins in Affinity?

[@skellener]

Have you tried Autograph from Left Angle for an After Effects replacement?

[@imagina-toon]

Xara Photo and Graphic Designer is a nice alternative. It's like Illustrator with a little bit of photoshop making it possible to edit photos and vector files together.

[@JeahnLaffitte]

Procreate Dreams is pretty dang solid looking for AE. But also, Cavalry

[@MichaelSturgill]

Yeah, from what I've seen, it looks awesome. I've added to my list of alternatives since so many people seem to really like it.

[@oxanagutu]

I've got capture one few years ago with 50% discount... sometimes if you sign for them they will send you discount codes.

[@aaronsurrain]

Lightroom alternatives don't seem to cover the storage and organization feature. Am I missing something? Can you recommend something for that?

[@MichaelSturgill]

What sort of features are you looking for? I use capture One and it has an organization system with features like ratings, flags and selects. I think darktable has similar features as well

[@aaronsurrain]

@@MichaelSturgill That kind of thing, thanks. After watching some other videos, I'm going to look into Darktable, Mylio, Rawtable, and Peakto. Do you have any experience with those?