hactually•3d
Show HN: Inamate – Open-source 2D animation tool (alternative to Adobe Animate)item?id=46953567

Adobe recently announced the end-of-life for Adobe Animate, then walked it back after community backlash.

Regardless of what Adobe decides next, the message was clear: animators who depend on proprietary tools are one corporate decision away from losing their workflow.

2D animation deserves an open-source option that isn't a toy. We've been working with a professional animator to guide feature priorities and ensure we're building something that actually fits real production workflows - not just a tech demo.

Github Repo: https://github.com/17twenty/inamate

We're at the stage where community feedback shapes the direction. If you're an animator, motion designer, or just someone who's been frustrated by the state of 2D animation tools — we'd love to hear:

- What features would make you switch from your current tool?

- What's the biggest pain point in your animation workflow?

- Is real-time collaboration actually useful for animation, or is it a gimmick?

Try it out, break it, and tell us what you think.

Built with Go, TS & React, WebAssembly, PostgreSQL, WebSocket, ffmpeg (for video exports).

11 comments
  • hactually•3d

    The architecture was designed for determinism and performance:

    - Go WASM engineowns the scene graph, evaluates timelines, compiles draw commands

    - Canvas2D frontend executes the command buffer (GPU-accelerated by the browser)

    - Go backend handles collaboration, persistence, and video encoding via ffmpeg

    - Operation-based document model - every mutation is an operation that supports undo/redo and real-time sync

    We chose a command buffer architecture (engine emits draw commands, browser rasterizes) over Figma-style pixel rendering in WASM. Canvas2D is already GPU-accelerated, and Go's WASM ecosystem doesn't have a battle-tested software rasterizer. This gives us hardware rendering for free while keeping the engine deterministic.

  • otherflavors•16h

    The BSL is not considered open source, so this is a "source-available 2D animation tool"

    • singpolyma3•14h

      BSL is eventually open source. Which is not the same as open source now but not quite the same as source available either IMHO

  • denismurphy•14h

    Does the engine support 'Merge Drawing' mode (destructive vector editing where overlapping shapes flatten, combine, or cut into each other), or is it strictly object-based?

  • bsimpson•16h

    What's the Business Source License?

    The attached file doesn't have terms, and references an undefined "change date."

    • otherflavors•16h

      The default change date for BSL is " four years after the first publicly available distribution of a specific version"

  • mcphage•14h

    > 2D animation deserves an open-source option that isn't a toy. We've been working with a professional animator to guide feature priorities and ensure we're building something that actually fits real production workflows - not just a tech demo.

    If you want people to understand that it's a real production tool and not a tech demo, your example animation in your readme should show a real production animation. Currently, what you're showing makes it look like a toy.

  • q2dg•15h

    Synfig is a toy?

  • grougnax•16h

    Why not Rust?

    • taklimakan•15h

      Why Rust?

      • mhuffman•14h

        Haven't you heard the good news? Rust is life .. Rust is love .. Rust is all! only partially being sarcastic here, considering how it is glazed and championed.