For those who don’t know the tool: Adobe Illustrator is the vector hub where assets get cleaned, prepped, and sent to motion apps like After Effects when still art needs to learn to dance.

One drawing, many angles, zero tantrums

Turntable is now available in Illustrator, adding a way to generate multi-angle views from a single vector illustration. You pick your artwork, hit generate, and suddenly you have a stack of angles to work with instead of a stack of regrets. The point is speed. Turnarounds, quick animation tests, and production-ready assets become much easier when the angles are available.

The trick that keeps being a vector

Turntable automatically generates up to 74 editable views from one vector design, including full rotation and vertical tilt. Each view stays editable as a vector. That means it aims to preserve the original details while giving you fresh angles to push through design, cleanup, and motion.

In the Sneaks demo, a character faced the wrong direction, and the usual fix would have meant redrawing. Turntable replaced that with generating views and scrubbing a slider until the right orientation appeared. The demo also showed vertical rotation, not just side to side turns, so the artwork could be viewed from a higher viewpoint.

The part production will care about

Turntable also showed a workflow where multiple rotated instances came from one original bat shape. After editing the original, an update views action pushed the change through the generated views. That matters because the slowest part of a turnaround is rarely making the first pass. It is fixing everything after feedback, and doing it without drifting style or losing consistency.

The handoff that tries not to trip you

Turntable is described with a seamless handoff to tools like After Effects, so teams can move from design to motion without breaking flow. It is also positioned as part of a broader set of recent Illustrator advances, including faster performance and expanded AI-powered workflows like Generative Shape Fill.

New tools and innovations should be tested before use in production, especially on stylized assets, tight delivery schedules, and the kind of corner cases taht never show up in demos.

Pricing and availability

Turntable is now available in Illustrator.

https://helpx.adobe.com/illustrator/desktop/use-generative-ai/view-artwork-from-any-angle.html

The post Adobe Turntable spins into Illustrator first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

For those who don’t know the tool: Affinity is a free single app that combines vector, photo, and layout work under one roof, with account ties to Canva for AI tools.

A lighter UI, on purpose

The March 2026 update introduces Light UI inside Affinity. Light UI is presented as a long-requested feature and it is described as fully customizable, including the ability to fine-tune interface brightness. Light UI also matters for a very practical reason that rarely makes it into feature lists: the UI you stare at for hours is part of your working conditions. A darker UI can reduce glare in some environments. A brighter UI can feel cleaner in others. This update makes that preference something you can dial in rather than endure.

Raster selections that turn into editable curves

A new Convert to Curves command appears in the Vector menu in Affinity. It turns a pixel selection into a fully editable vector curve. The feature is framed (See what I did there?) as a faster path from raster to vector. The update is removing the need for manual tracing for designers and illustrators who want to convert parts of a photo into clean vector artwork. That is a capability claim, so treat it as a marketing claim until you validate it on your own files.

Convert to Curves is also useful for turning selected subjects into curves that can be refined without redrawing every contour. The same update text lists silhouettes, logo-style graphics, and cut-outs as example outcomes. The Convert to Curves workflow is described as pairing well with the Object Selection tool, with the goal of keeping the transition from pixels to vectors smooth and uninterrupted. Again, that is a promise about feel and flow, not a benchmark.

If you live in the world of revisions, this is the part worth testing immediately. Vectorizing from a selection is only valuable if the resulting curve quality and editability hold up under actual production demands, including later reshaping and downstream exports.

Live Tone Blend Groups for non-destructive compositing

The update introduces Live Tone Blend Groups in Affinity. A Live Tone Blend Group is a dynamic group where layers placed inside begin blending with the underlying composition in real time, non-destructively.

The feature is a new approach to compositing. The changelog describes it as simplifying tonal matching by reducing the need for manual matching with clipped adjustments and channel manipulations, and blending has ALLLEGEDLY become a one-click process. The update also describes Live Tone Blend Groups as fully editable, with blending settings that can be refined at any stage and individual layers that can still be adjusted as needed. It also claims the groups render smoothly even in complex documents. Rendering smoothness is highly file-dependent, so that statement stays in marketing-claim territory until independently verified.

If your day includes backplates, patches, and the slow dance of getting elements to sit in the same world, the key promise here is non-destructive tone integration that stays editable. The key question you should test is control. Specifically, how predictable the blend behaves across different kinds of underlying content, and how it interacts with your existing adjustment habits inside the app.

Small workflow refinements that add up

Alongside the headline features, the update includes a right-click brush menu in Affinity, giving illustrators and digital painters instant access to their full brush library. The update also adds a right-click menu on document tabs, enabling quick checks for Color Format and Size, and it includes actions such as closing other files and floating a window.

None of these are flashy in isolation, but they target the friction points you hit dozens of times a day. The update positions them as answers to everyday workflow pain. Whether they actually reduce your click count depends on your habits and your muscle memory, so build a quick sanity test: open your usual number of documents, keep your usual brush sets around, and see if the new menus cut steps or just add another place to look.

What to test before you trust it

Light UI is easy to validate. You can confirm whether the brightness controls land where you want them and whether the look stays consistent across your workspace setups.

Convert to Curves needs tougher love. Test it on messy selections, hard edges, hair, glass, motion blur, compression artefacts, and anything else that makes selection tools sweat. Validate how editable the resulting curves feel, how clean they export, and how stable they remain after further edits.

Live Tone Blend Groups deserve a proper comp trial. Toss in layers with mismatched exposure, hue shifts, and different texture frequencies. Then test editability. Make changes upstream and see if the blend stays predictable. If it does what the feature claims, it can save time. If it surprises you, it can also cost time. Either way, you want that surprise to happen before a deadline.

Serif will not ship your shots, your layouts, or your client approvals. You still have to do that part yourself, so treat this update like any other new tool: exciting, useful, and guilty until proven stable on your pipeline.

https://www.affinity.studio/blog/affinity-update-march-2026

The post Cava / Serif updates Affinity first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

For those who don’t know the tool: Adobe Animate is a 2D vector animation tool in Creative Cloud, used for character animation, interactive content, and legacy web workflows, sitting between After Effects and Illustrator. It has been, under different names like Flash, and in the very beginning, the FutureSplash Animator, around since 1996.

The official decision

Adobe has formally confirmed that Adobe Animate is being discontinued. The information is published in an official end of life. According to Adobe, sales of Adobe Animate will stop on 1 March 2026. After that date, the application will no longer be available for new purchases or new subscriptions.

Adobe states that existing customers will retain access for a limited time, depending on their licence type. Individual subscribers can continue to access and receive support for Adobe Animate until 1 March 2027. Enterprise and education customers will retain access, downloads, and support until 1 March 2029. After those dates, Adobe Animate will no longer be supported or accessible through Adobe systems.

“As technologies evolve, new platforms and paradigms emerge that better serve the needs of the users. Acknowledging this change, we are planning to discontinue supporting Animate.” (Here)

Adobe’s notice is explicit that users should plan ahead. Access to project files stored in Adobe services may end when support expires. Adobe recommends exporting content before the relevant deadlines. No automatic migration tools or replacement workflows are documented, and no guarantees are made regarding future compatibility.

The death notice does not mention artificial intelligence or strategic shifts. Any interpretation beyond the published dates and access conditions is not stated by Adobe and is therefore not verified at press time. However, it doesn’t take a genius to conclude that they haven’t found a way to integrate AI into it, or maybe they just forgot about the tool, so they are taking it to the grave, instead of open-sourcing it.

Access and support timelines

For individual users, Adobe Animate remains usable until March 2027, provided it is already installed and licensed. Updates, bug fixes, and official support will cease at that point. For enterprise and education customers, Adobe extends this window to March 2029, allowing organisations more time to transition archives and pipelines.

Adobe warns that once support ends, downloads may no longer be available, even for previously licensed users. This affects reinstallation, system upgrades, and long-term archiving strategies. The company advises users to export assets to other formats while access is still guaranteed.

A long, slow goodbye

Adobe Animate has a long history under multiple names, including Flash Professional. It has been used for broadcast graphics, web animation, interactive content, and game assets. Over time, its role narrowed as web standards changed and interactive Flash content declined. Animate survived by repositioning itself as a general-purpose 2D animation tool that exports to video, HTML5 Canvas, and other formats.

Despite that repositioning, Adobe Animate remained isolated within Creative Cloud. It does not share a unified timeline and its character animation tools overlap only partially with other Adobe products.

Practical implications for production

For production teams, the shutdown introduces predictable but non-trivial risks. Projects with long lifecycles, educational curricula, and archived content built in Animate will need review. Pipelines depending on FLA or XFL files should be audited well before access deadlines. Asset export and documentation should be treated as a scheduled task, not a last-minute exercise.

// Adobe Animate end of life notice
// https://helpx.adobe.com/animate/kb/end-of-life.html

The post Adobe pulls the plug on Animate at last first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

Canva announced that Affinity, the formerly separate applications Designer, Photo and Publisher, have been relaunched as a unified suite under Canva’s banner. The new version is positioned for professional design workflows while complementing Canva’s existing platform.

The updated Affinity is described as “free forever”, with no base subscription required. It launches for Windows and macOS, with an iPad version planned. It introduces a universal file type across design, photo and layout workflows, as well as built-in export and integration with Canva’s broader ecosystem. For production artists, this means one tool potentially covering illustration, retouching and layout tasks rather than maintaining three independent programs.

Pricing and licence model

Affinity’s previous one-time-purchase model has been replaced with a free-tier structure. The base app is free to download and use indefinitely, but certain advanced tools, primarily those involving AI, such as image generation, cleanup and smart-fill, require a Canva Premium subscription. The “free forever” offer therefore coexists with a paid layer, effectively turning Affinity into a freemium product.

Existing perpetual licences remain functional “for now”, but Canva has not published long-term support or compatibility timelines for those legacy versions. Older V2 editions have been withdrawn from sale.

Strategic rationale

Canva acquired Serif and the Affinity suite in early 2024, bringing roughly three million professional users into its ecosystem. The move gave Canva an entry point into the professional creative software market, where subscription-based incumbents like Adobe dominate.

With this relaunch, Canva appears to be positioning Affinity as both a professional-grade offering and a bridge between traditional desktop software and Canva’s web-based design platform. The strategy signals an attempt to make professional workflows part of Canva’s larger “creative operating system,” unifying its consumer and professional user bases.

Considerations for production use

While the “free forever” headline is attractive, Canva’s AI features remain deeply embedded in the new workflow. Many of these tools, including automatic cleanup, are gated behind Canva Premium accounts. This will require hands-on testing over time to determine whether they justify the eventual cost of subscription access.

The real test will be how easily Affinity can be configured for use inside pipelines. Questions remain about how long it will take to adapt the new unified app to established workflows, whether automation and scripting capabilities have changed, and how stable the new file system proves when used in multi-artist setups. Pipelines that rely on established asset management and render paths may require reconfiguration to integrate the new Affinity properly. The effort might be worthwhile if Canva maintains long-term product continuity, but that remains to be seen.

Integration with Canva’s cloud storage is another factor. The degree of flexibility when connecting to existing storage solutions, such as NAS or enterprise cloud systems (Dropbox, Google Drive, or on-prem servers), has not been fully detailed. Production teams will need to verify whether the new cloud hooks can coexist with external asset storage or whether data remains locked inside Canva’s ecosystem.

Despite these uncertainties, the relaunch is broadly good news for artists and small studios. A unified toolset with no upfront cost lowers the barrier to entry and provides an accessible alternative to subscription-only competitors. The performance and stability of the new app will ultimately determine whether it can find a lasting place in production environments.

Bottom line

The most striking structural change is that Affinity’s three separate apps for vector graphics, raster work and layout (Designer, Photo and Publisher)have been collapsed into a single executable. For artists used to bouncing between Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign (or, in our case at Digital Production, between Photoshop and InDesign several times per day and it feels like a thousand times a day), the prospect of handling illustration, image correction and page layout within one coherent workspace is admittedly tempting. If the combined app maintains the responsiveness that made the original Affinity trio popular, this could simplify day-to-day asset handling considerably.

Studios should test the software thoroughly before deployment, evaluate integration with their existing storage and pipeline systems, and monitor how Canva handles support for legacy perpetual versions. The promise of a free, professional toolset is welcome, provided it stays usable, open and supported long enough to justify the switch.

The post Affinity: free all-in-one design suite first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

Hold onto your styluses, texture artists! Ucupaint 2.2 has just rolled out, bringing a slew of UI enhancements that promise to make your texturing workflow in Blender smoother than ever. This free add-on, crafted by the ever-diligent ucupumar, has undergone a significant facelift to tackle previous usability quirks.

Collapsible Layer Groups

Gone are the days of endless scrolling through layer stacks. With the new collapsible layer groups, you can now tuck away entire sections, keeping your workspace neat and tidy. It’s like having a Marie Kondo for your layers.

Direct Layer Channel Adjustments

Previously, tweaking the layer channel value required enabling the override toggle, which was sneakily hidden by default. In Ucupaint 2.2, you can directly adjust the layer channel source without jumping through hoops. Efficiency level: expert mode.

https://twitter.com/ucupaint/status/1890699356073840735

Relocated Vector Option

The Vector option has packed its bags and moved out of the layer dropdown. This relocation streamlines the interface, making vector adjustments more accessible. It’s all about putting things where they belong.

Consistent Object Index Labeling

Consistency is key, and Ucupaint 2.2 delivers by labeling the Object Index uniformly across the board, ditching the old ‘Pass Index’ moniker. No more second-guessing—just clear, consistent terminology.

Integrated Layer and Mask Sources

Layer and mask sources are now directly embedded into the UI, reducing the need for unnecessary clicks. It’s like having all your tools laid out before you, ready for action.

Rebake Button Addition

For those moments when you need to rebake textures, a new Rebake button has been conveniently placed next to the ‘Use Baked’ button. No more scavenger hunts through menus—just quick and easy access.

Experimental Mask/Override Display

For the adventurous among you, there’s an experimental option that displays mask and override images as individual entries in the layer list. It’s a new way to visualize your components, offering greater control and clarity. Ucupaint 2.2 is available for download now. As with any new tool, it’s wise to test these features thoroughly before integrating them into your production pipeline. After all, even the most polished tools can have a few quirks. For a comprehensive list of changes and to get your hands on the latest version, visit the official release page.

The post Ucupaint 2.2: A Fresh Coat of Paint for Blender Texturing first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.