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AMA: Adobe XD 2017

6 years ago from Demian Borba, Product Manager for Adobe XD

  • Jernej Horvat, 6 years ago

    Q1: Is it going to be possible to import XD files directly into After Effects?

    Q2: Do you plan to expand the functionality of the Adobe XD mobile app so that we could design directly on an iPad or iPhone?

    0 points
    • Cristian MoiseiCristian Moisei, 6 years ago

      There's Adobe Comp for that. It's not great but it does exist. I think there were a few other non Adobe attempts at creating design software for the iPad.

      0 points
      • Jernej Horvat, 6 years ago

        I use Comp but it's not integrated with Adobe XD on the Mac.

        1 point
        • Cristian MoiseiCristian Moisei, 6 years ago

          I wouldn't hold my breath for a cross platform tool that works on every one of our devices. Most dev teams can barely do Mac / Windows right. Figma couldn't even be bothered and made a Chrome only web app.

          We're a long way away from that future.

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          • Thomas Lowry, 6 years ago

            Chrome has good support across many OS' and devices...IMO that is a pretty good starting point to actually have success in building a cross-platform tool.

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          • Dylan FieldDylan Field, 6 years ago

            Hey, Cristian! Check out Figma's native app sometime! https://www.figma.com/downloads

            1 point
            • Cristian MoiseiCristian Moisei, 6 years ago

              I was not aware you had a native app. The fact that it was running in a browser was the biggest concern for me: not only does that mean that the entire app is at the hands of the company making the browser, but there are several other drawbacks, like not getting quite the same hardware access, you waste a lot of space for the browser UI and so on. If Google decides to change something to the way they render fonts or change the way some script is loading, the app could easily be affected.

              Is the native one actually native or just a web wrapper? It doesn't help that it completely froze for a full 2 minutes after I installed it on a fast computer.

              To answer your other questions about what I didn't find it particularly impressive:

              Live collaboration and the ability to save your projects in the cloud is great - kudos for that.

              Aside from that though, what exactly can it do that other apps cannot?

              • Allowing you to copy the CSS of an element? PS had that for years and it doesn't exactly replace apps like Avocode who do a lot more like allow you to make measurements easily or extract the SVG / PNG assets you need (that is a developer realises a designer missed an icon and gets it for himself straight from Avocode).
              • Allowing you to create simple prototypes where you can go from one page to the next is hardly enough to replace other prototyping tools like InVision or even better Framer. (I'm going off what your instructions say here, if the prototyping tools can do more, I'm happy to revisit this).
              • Is there anything else?

              Because if not, I can understand this took a lot of effort to create but you have to see it from the user's point of view where you have a (what I thought was web only) app with an interface as clunky as Photoshop's (why not make it so that if you go more than one group deep you can't read the names of the layers anymore or bury everything under a text menu), and not a lot else to offer.

              0 points
    • Andrew Shorten, 6 years ago

      Can you tell us a bit more about what from XD you'd like to bring into After Effects and what you'd do want to do once there?

      Regarding device support, we're open to bringing XD to any platform where there is demand from designers. That said, before expanding to additional platforms, there are some core capabilities that we still need to bring to our desktop Mac and Windows apps.

      Thanks, Andrew (Adobe).

      0 points
    • Jason KirtleyJason Kirtley, 6 years ago

      There is a plugin/tool in sketch that already let you import into After Effects. Sketch is leagues ahead of XD. Adobe is just playing catchup/follow the leader to Sketch with XD.

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      • Cristian MoiseiCristian Moisei, 6 years ago

        Has Sketch figured out colour management yet?

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        • Jason KirtleyJason Kirtley, 6 years ago

          I've yet to run into an issue with color and Sketch when designing for the web and mobile. Been using it for around 4 years now. Used to be a die hard photoshop user also. Now I use photoshop for its original purpose, deep editing photos :)

          0 points
          • Cristian MoiseiCristian Moisei, 6 years ago

            What monitor do you have? The problems are not as obvious on older, less accurate monitors, but on the newest ones (like the 2016 MB or the 2017 iMac) not having colour manage makes a world of difference. There was a thread a few days ago where Marc Edwards explains how it works.

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            • Jason KirtleyJason Kirtley, 6 years ago

              Just out of curiosity? What are you currently using to create your layouts/designs?

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              • Cristian MoiseiCristian Moisei, 6 years ago

                Photoshop. I do have a copy of Sketch which I last tried for a real project 1 year ago and found it too sucky. My layouts, i.e. wireframes or user maps I make in XD and before XD was around I used to do it in AI.

                0 points