When comparing Adobe After Effects CC vs FluidUI, the Slant community recommends FluidUI for most people. In the question“What are the best tools for prototyping mobile interactions/animations?” FluidUI is ranked 6th while Adobe After Effects CC is ranked 14th. The most important reason people chose FluidUI is:
The learning curve is relatively low compared to other software that supports animations/transitions. Both building the wireframes and designing the interactions is all drop and drag.
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Great for motion graphics compositing
Ae is the de facto standard for motion graphic design.
Pro Huge amount of resources
Because of the popularity of Ae, there are a plethora of tutorials, presets, plug-ins, etc that can be used.
Pro Extensive plug-in support
After Effects has extensive plug-in support. A broad range of third party plug-ins are available including solutions for particle systems, 3D environments and grading.
Pro C4D Lite & Cineware integration
After Effects CC includes a Lite version of MAXON CINEMA 4D, a 3D modeling, animation and rendering application.
Pro 3D camera tracker
Pro Speedy and comfortable UI
After grasping what panels do what, the workspace feels safe and comfortable. And the timeline moves and shows things how you would expect it to.
Pro Works well with other Adobe software
This program is made to interact very well with the other Adobe production apps like Premiere Pro, Soundbooth, Photoshop and others. You can dynamically link with a set list of Adobe software so when you update something in Ae it will update in other software accordingly.
Pro Subscription / cloud-based model
Ensures you always have the latest version of the software. Allows saving preferences in the cloud, so you can load them on a different machine. You can even sync setting from a different user.
Pro Subscription based model
You constantly have the latest software that is updated regularly.
Pro Ray-traced and extruded text and shapes
Pro User friendly
The learning curve is relatively low compared to other software that supports animations/transitions. Both building the wireframes and designing the interactions is all drop and drag.
Pro Tools for team collaboration
Work with your team on a design. Connect on live video calls and chat or add comments.
Pro Supports realistic gestures & transitions
You can simulate all the typical iOS gestures such as tap, double tap, swipe & long hold. These gestures then can trigger animated transitions such as sliding, fading, pop in, & flip. This enables you to create very realistic interactable demos of your app. Checkout the demo page for some examples.
Pro Awesome version control
Every action you or your team takes automatically creates a revision you can easily revert to.
Pro Provides UI assets from all the versions of iOS
The UI library is huge and very high quality. All the UI required to design iO7 apps is included as well as iOS 6 and basic wireframing elements. For example in iOS7 it provides:
- Backgrounds
- Navigation & status bars
- Layouts (list pickers, maps, keyboards, scroll etc)
- Controls
- Typography
- Icons
Pro Fast
Using the app is feels very snappy.
Pro Free forever for a single project & 10 screens
They have a very reasonable free tier with the paid versions starting at $12/month.
Pro Lets you test on an iPhone as well as in the browser
You can preview your designs live in the browser as well as send them to a mobile device to better simulate the UX.
Pro Makes it easy to plan out the app workflow
Fluid isn't just about wireframing static screens. You can plan out all the user flows and then define the transitions between them. This is really handy for planning out the entire user workflow.
Cons
Con No true 3D environment for compositing
Con No real-time features
Con Costly
The Adobe subscription costs are quite steep for anybody on a shoestring budget.