When comparing Adobe After Effects CC vs Proto, the Slant community recommends Proto for most people. In the question“What are the best tools for prototyping mobile interactions/animations?” Proto is ranked 9th while Adobe After Effects CC is ranked 14th. The most important reason people chose Proto is:
That's awesome.
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 It allows you to use JSON animations (such as Lottie)
That's awesome.
Pro Has one of the largest gestural support libraries in the market
Proto supports one of the (if not the) largest gestural support libraries out of all the prototyping tools. With gestures such as:
- Pinchin/out
- Swipes
- Double tap
- Tap
- Hold
- Release
and more...
Pro Native prototype testing
Developers can build prototypes through the browser with Proto, but the testing itself is done on the devices. Proto has released native apps for both iOS and Android that developers to test their designs right on the native device itself.
Pro Easy to use with it's intuitive drag-and-drop interface
Proto is very easy to use even for beginners, or programmers who are not well-versed in Photoshop or Sketch or any other drawing application. With it's easy drag-and-drop interface and with a wide library of commonly used UI elements for Android and iOS, prototyping with Proto is very simple.
Pro Design and prototype all in one tool
Better UX to not switch between multiple tools.
Pro Preview prototypes on the device (e.g. iPhone, Android phone)
Pro User testing / screen recording capabilities
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.
Con No stereoscopic editing support
Con The mobile app for previews doesn't look as good as the preview on the browser
That can be very disappointing. Once you have everything perfect the design becomes different when you open it on your mobile app.
Con Since it opens on browser, it can get very laggy
Once you start using lots of images, vectors and animations you can go into deep trouble.
Con Only a free trial
Other prototyping tools offer free plans to trial as long as one wants, but Proto only offers a trial that while has full functionality has a 15 day time limit.
Con Prototyping can be relatively slow
Proto's animations and interactions are very detailed. As far as prototyping goes Proto is probably the best tool to get as close to the actual app as possible. But this brings the downside that prototyping with Proto becomes quite slow and can take several hours to finish to get everything to work perfectly.
