Flare (Rust)

Flare, rewritten in Rust: open-source 2D animation authoring that follows the Flash / Adobe Animate workflow — symbols, layers, keyframes, classic, shape and motion tweens with a Motion Editor, onion skin, scenes, and a familiar Tools / Stage / Timeline / Properties / Library workspace — plus tools from OpenToonz (the C++ base of Flare).

This repository is the base of Flare's conversion to Rust. It grew out of AnimationCraft (the original Rust project, KMSDax/AnimationCraft), whose engine Flare's native Studio already runs on; Flare's features are being rebuilt here until it replaces the C++ application. Crates keep their ac- prefix and documents their .acx format for now.

Not affiliated with Adobe.

Install (Windows)

Download Flare-<version>-setup.exe from the repository's Releases (or the Windows build workflow run under Actions) and run it. It installs for your user only (no admin prompt), adds Start Menu and Desktop shortcuts, opens .acx files with Flare, and can be removed from Apps & features. A portable zip (flare.exe + flare-cli.exe) is published too.

Build them yourself: on Windows, cargo build --release -p ac-app -p ac-cli then makensis packaging/windows/installer.nsi; from Linux, sh tools/build-windows.sh (MinGW + NSIS).

Run it (from source)

Requires Rust 1.95+ (https://rustup.rs; EffectCraft needs it).

cargo run --release -p ac-app          # the editor (opens the demo scene)
cargo run -p ac-cli -- info demo       # inspect the demo document
cargo run -p ac-cli -- gif demo out.gif
cargo run -p ac-cli -- video demo out.mp4   # needs ffmpeg
cargo run -p ac-cli -- html5 demo out.html  # one web page that plays the movie
cargo run -p ac-cli -- xfl demo out.fla     # .fla / XFL (any document argument may be a .fla too)
cargo test --workspace

Linux needs the usual X11/Wayland + OpenGL libraries (any desktop has them) and, for sound playback, the ALSA headers (libasound2-dev / alsa-lib-devel). Build without sound output with cargo run -p ac-app --no-default-features.

Try this

1. Press Enter to play; , and . step frames. Turn on Onion skin.
2. Select objects: click (Shift+click adds), or drag a box around them on empty stage. Drag to move, drag a corner to scale (Shift keeps proportions); with Q drag just outside a corner to rotate. Arrow keys nudge.
3. Remove objects: Delete/Backspace, the 🗑 Delete button in Properties, or right-click → Delete. Cut/Copy/Paste/Duplicate with Ctrl+X/C/V/D; Ctrl+Z undoes.
4. Frames: click a cell to select it, drag across cells/layers for a range, Shift+click to extend, double-click to select a whole span, click a layer name for all its frames. Drag a selection to move keyframes. Right-click for F5/F6/F7, tweens, Clear Frames and Copy/Paste Frames. Delete clears frames.
5. Draw with R, O, N, Y; press F8 to make a symbol. Double-click an instance or a group to edit it in place (the rest of the scene stays visible, dimmed); double-click a Library item for isolated editing. Esc (or double-clicking empty space) goes back.
6. Library: drag an item onto the stage; right-click to rename, duplicate, change type or delete.
7. File → Export → Export Image (PNG / JPEG / GIF), SVG, Animated GIF, video, HTML5 Canvas, sprite sheets, Lottie, .fla.

Tools

Two-column Tools panel, organised like Animate (and PhotoCraft): each button is a group; a corner triangle means more tools inside: right-click or long-press to pick one. … at the bottom opens Edit Toolbar to hide tools. Options for the active tool are in Properties ▸ Tool.

Group	Tools (shortcut)
Select	Selection (V), Subselection (A), Free Transform (Q: scale, skew, rotate around a movable transformation point; Distort and Envelope modes), Gradient Transform (F), 3D Rotation (W), 3D Translation (G), Lasso (L), Polygon Lasso, Magic Wand
Draw	Pen (P) + Add (=) / Delete (−) / Convert Anchor, Text (T), Line (N), Rectangle (R, corner radius), Oval (O, start/end angle, inner radius), PolyStar
Paint	Paint Brush (Y), Fluid Brush (B), Pencil (Shift+Y), Width (U), Bone (M), Asset Warp (Shift+W), Paint Bucket (K), Ink Bottle (S), Eyedropper (I), Eraser (E)
View	Camera (C), Hand (H / Space), Rotation (Shift+H), Zoom (Z)
Colours	Stroke / Fill / none, Swap (X), Black & White (D), Snap; fill type Solid / Linear / Radial gradient

Transforms

• Free Transform (Q): corner handles scale (Shift = proportional, Alt = around the transformation point), side handles stretch one axis, dragging an edge skews (top/bottom = horizontal, left/right = vertical), just outside a corner rotates. Drag the white dot to move the transformation point.
• Distort / Envelope: pick the mode in Properties ▸ Tool or Modify ▸ Transform; drag the green handles (shapes; Break Apart symbols first).
• Window ▸ Transform (Ctrl+T): exact W/H %, rotate or skew H/V, 3D rotation and centre, flip, Remove Transform, and Copy selection and apply transform for radial patterns. Modify ▸ Transform ▸ Scale and Rotate (Ctrl+Alt+S).
• 3D Rotation (W): red line = X, green = Y, blue ring = Z, orange ring = free, centre dot = 3D centre. 3D Translation (G): X/Y arrows, centre dot = depth. Perspective angle and vanishing point: Properties ▸ Doc. 3D values tween with Classic tweens.

Bones, warp, width, camera

• Bone (M): drag from one object to another on the same layer; start on a joint to extend the chain. Then drag any bonded object with the Selection tool to pose the chain (inverse kinematics); poses become keyframes. Properties ▸ Object shows the bone and Remove bone / Remove all bones.
• Asset Warp (Shift+W): click a shape, bitmap, symbol instance or group to drop pins, drag pins to bend it, Alt+click removes a pin; Remove warp in Properties. Warped bitmaps and symbols draw the same in every export (SVG embeds them as a picture; .fla gets them unwarped).
• Width (U): drag out from a stroke to make it thicker there; Alt+click a width point to delete it; Copy/Paste width profile in Properties.
• Paint Brush (Y): seven brush shapes (round, oval, square, flat, slanted) and the five brush modes. Magic Wand: Break Apart a bitmap (Ctrl+B), then click a colour to select it (threshold in Properties ▸ Tool).
• Selection (V) on merge shapes: drag an edge to bend it, Ctrl-drag to add a corner.
• Gradients: Properties ▸ Object ▸ Fill ▸ Linear/Radial (edit stops and Flow: extend / reflect / repeat there), then the Gradient Transform tool (F) to move, rotate and stretch (bitmap fills too).
• Camera (C): adds a Camera layer; drag pans, scroll zooms, Shift+drag rotates. Keyframe and tween it like any layer; playback shows the camera view. Camera effects (brightness, tint, alpha, blur) apply to the whole shot.
• Free camera (VCam): Properties ▸ Camera ▸ Mode ▸ Free. The stage stays put and the camera becomes an orange frame on it: drag inside to move, a corner to zoom, the knob to rotate (Shift: 15° steps). Follow a named object (with lag and offset), add shake, and tick "Preview through camera" to see the shot.
• Width (U) works on drawing objects and on merge-shape lines.
• Rotation (Shift+H) turns the view only (double-click to reset).

Files, import and export

• Documents are .acx files: a ZIP package, like .fla, holding the document as readable parts (manifest.json, document.json, one JSON file per scene and per symbol) plus images as PNG files, sounds in their original format and a thumbnail. Older single-file .acx.json documents still open (and save, if you give that extension).
• File › Open / Save use your system's file dialogs; Open Recent remembers 10 files. Unsaved work is autosaved every minute, and after a crash Flare offers to restore it. Closing with unsaved changes asks first. Drop images, SVGs or documents onto the window to import/open them.
• Import (Ctrl+R): PNG, JPG, GIF, BMP (animated GIFs become frames), numbered image sequences, and SVG (editable shapes, gradients, text). Bitmaps live in the Library with "Allow smoothing".
• Export: PNG, SVG, animated GIF, PNG sequence, video (MP4 / WebM / MOV through ffmpeg; on Windows winget install ffmpeg). File › Publish Settings (Ctrl+Shift+F12) sets scale, frame range, transparency and GIF options. Long exports run in the background with a progress window.
• .fla and XFL: File › Open reads CS5-or-later .fla files and XFL folders (shapes become merge shapes, drawing objects, symbols, tweens, custom eases, text, bitmaps, sounds, filters, frame scripts); saving keeps the format. File › Export › Export .fla / XFL writes either (a name ending in .xfl makes an uncompressed folder). Anything the other format can't hold is listed in the Output panel instead of disappearing.
• Publish HTML5 Canvas: a folder (index.html + movie.js + runtime + images) or a single self-contained .html. It plays exactly what the stage shows, runs frame scripts (with addEventListener("click", …) on named instances), makes buttons live and plays sounds.
• Generate Sprite Sheet (PNG + JSON hash / JSON array / Starling XML, trimmed, duplicates shared), Animated SVG (SMIL, plays in browsers) and Lottie JSON.

Effects, motion blur, tracing

• Motion Blur (Properties › Filters › Add filter): blurs an object along its real movement since the previous frame (shutter angle, samples), through tweens, motion guides, nested symbols and the camera.
• EffectCraft effects (Add filter › EffectCraft effects, with search): about 200 effects from ArtCraft's EffectCraft — blurs, distortions, stylize, generators, colour, keying. EffectCraft is a git dependency: cargo update -p effectcraft-effects brings in its latest version. They render in the stage and every raster export.
• Trace Bitmap (Modify › Trace Bitmap…): colour threshold, minimum area, curve fit and corner threshold; the bitmap becomes merge-shape fills that meet exactly. Centerline mode turns line art into lines along the middle of the ink, with its thickness.
• Shift & Trace (timeline toolbar): the previous and next keyframes as ghosts you slide (drag; Shift+drag for the next one) and turn (Alt+drag) under your drawing.
• Import Photoshop (PSD): one bitmap layer per Photoshop layer, in place.
• Export Timing Sheet (XDTS): layer timing for Clip Studio Paint / OpenToonz.
• Import XDTS Timing Sheet (File ▸ Import, or drop the file): columns named like layers re-time them (drawing 1, 2, 3… = the layer's drawings in order); other columns load numbered images next to the sheet (A_0001.png, A/0001.png) or become blank keyframes labelled with the drawing numbers.
• Images: PNG, JPEG, GIF (animated too), BMP, TGA, TIFF, WebP and OpenEXR (linear light, shown in sRGB).

From OpenToonz: styles, deformers, assistants, painting, IK

• Stroke styles (Properties ▸ Fill and stroke): besides Animate's Solid, Dashed, Dotted, Ragged, Stipple and Hatched, OpenToonz's Herringbone, Chain, Circlets, Scratchy, Rope, Tulle, Plait, Fuzz, Bubbles, Jagged, Zigzag, Wave and Curl, each with its own parameters and extra colours.
• Deformation tools (flyout next to the Width tool): Magnet pulls everything within a radius, Pinch drags a line (smooth or a corner), Pump thickens or thins a line, Bender bends lines where they cross a segment you draw, Iron smooths wobbles. They work on drawing objects and merge shapes.
• Drawing assistants (Assistants tool): guides that straighten freehand strokes (Line or parallels, Vanishing point, Ellipse or concentric, two- or three-point Perspective, Fisheye), replicators that repeat them (Mirror, Star with optional kaleidoscope, Grid, Affine: a transform applied again and again) and Jitter (a smooth hand-made wobble), for the Pencil, Paint Brush and Fluid Brush.
• Raster Brush (Brush flyout): 25 MyPaint brushes (pencils, inks, charcoal, chalk, airbrush, watercolour, smudge, erasers) painting pixels into a bitmap on the current keyframe, frame by frame.
• Motion Editor: right-click a key ▸ Interpolation to next key: Constant, Linear, Ease In/Out, Exponential, Expression (sin(frame*10)*20, 100 - rotation/2, random(0, 5) …) or Similar Shape.
• Joint constraints (Properties ▸ Bones): turn a joint off, limit how far it bends, or pin it so it stays put while you pose the rest. IK is OpenToonz's damped least squares: the whole chain moves smoothly, and pinned joints hold.

Particles

• Particle Emitter tool (next to Assistants): click to place an emitter, drag to aim it (the drag's length sets the speed). Properties sets the particle (dot, square, star, a library symbol or bitmap), rate, life, speed, direction and spread, gravity, drag, spin, scale and colour over life, fades, emission area, pre-warm and a stop time. Particles start at the emitter's keyframe, scrub exactly, and show in every export (video, GIF, SVG, HTML5, Lottie, sprite sheets); .fla leaves them out with a warning.

Sound

• File › Import › Import Sound (WAV, MP3, OGG Vorbis, FLAC) or drop a file on the window. Drag a sound from the Library onto the stage to start it on the current keyframe, or pick it in Properties › Sound with Sync Event / Start / Stop / Stream and Repeat ×N or Loop.
• The waveform is drawn in the timeline frames; sound plays with the timeline and is mixed into video and HTML5 exports.
• Lip Syncing: select a graphic instance of a mouth symbol whose frames 1–10 are Neutral, MBP, Ai, E, O, U, FV, L, WQ, etc., pick the voice layer in Properties and press Lip Sync: it keyframes the mouth to the sound (a loudness/frequency heuristic, ready for hand tweaks).

Layers, masks and guides

Right-click a layer name: New Folder, Mask (the layer's shapes reveal the layer below), Guide, Add Classic Motion Guide (classic tweens on the layer below follow the first stroke on the guide; tick Orient to path in Frame properties), Layer Properties. Drag layers into and out of folders; click a folder's triangle to collapse it.

Animation

• Eases: Properties ▸ Frame ▸ Ease picks the simple −100…100 ease, one of 30 presets (Quad … Elastic, In / Out / In Out) or a custom curve: drag points and handles, double-click to add, right-click to delete (Alt breaks a handle). Works for classic, shape and motion tweens.
• Motion tweens: right-click a frame ▸ Create Motion Tween (a one-frame span grows to one second). Move to any frame and move/rotate/scale/fade the object: that writes property keyframes (diamonds), not new keyframes. The motion path shows on the stage: drag its squares to move positions, drag the line to bend it, use Subselection (A) for Bezier handles. F6 keys every property at the playhead, Shift+F6 clears them. Ctrl+drag (or just drag, for a motion tween) a layer's last frame to lengthen/shorten it; keys stretch.
• Motion Editor (double-click a motion span, or Window ▸ Motion Editor): one graph per property; drag keys up/down for values, left/right to retime, click a graph to move the playhead, right-click a key for Smooth / Corner / Delete, and give each property its own ease.
• Shape hints: on the first or last keyframe of a shape tween press Ctrl+Shift+H, then drag the lettered hint onto the outline on both keyframes (yellow/green = placed, red = off the outline).
• Reverse Frames and Convert to Frame-by-Frame in the frame menu.
• Onion skin: drag the markers above the frames; Markers ▸ Anchor / Onion 2 / 5 / All; Outlines; Edit Multiple shows every keyframe in the range and moves them together.
• Layer parenting: right-click a layer ▸ Parent Layer: its objects follow the first object on the parent layer (shown as an arrow and name).
• Scenes: Insert ▸ Scene, Window ▸ Scene (Shift+F2) to switch, rename, reorder, duplicate or delete. Exports play the scenes in order.

Drawing: merge shapes and drawing objects

• Merge Drawing is the default (as in Animate): shapes drawn on a layer become one shape. A new shape cuts what is under it, same-coloured fills merge, and a line drawn across a fill splits it. Press J (or Tool properties ▸ Drawing model) for Object Drawing, where each shape is its own object.
• Selection tool on merge shapes: click a fill or a line to select just that part (double-click: a fill with its outline, or joined lines); drag a box or lasso to cut out part of a shape. A selection floats until you deselect, then merges where you dropped it. Drag an edge to bend it, a corner to move it.
• Paint Brush modes (Normal, Fills, Behind, Selection, Inside), Eraser modes (Normal, Fills, Lines, Selected Fills, Inside) and Faucet, Paint Bucket gap size (fills areas enclosed by lines) and Lock Fill.
• Modify ▸ Combine Objects (Union, Intersect, Punch, Crop) and ▸ Shape (Smooth, Straighten, Optimize); Ctrl+B on a drawing object turns it into merge shape.
• Rectangle / Oval Primitive (in the Rectangle flyout): corner radii, angles and inner radius stay editable in Properties.
• Stroke style (solid, dashed, dotted), cap and join, and bitmap fills from the library, in Properties for drawing objects.
• Shape bones: with the Bone tool, drag inside one shape to add bones to it; drag a bone with the Selection tool to bend the shape (poses tween). The Bind tool (Bone flyout) chooses which points follow which bone.

Objects

• Group / Ungroup (Ctrl+G / Ctrl+Shift+G), Align panel (Ctrl+K) and Info panel (Ctrl+I), also in Modify › Align.
• Filters and blending in Properties › Object: Drop Shadow, Blur, Glow, Bevel, Adjust Color (they tween), and 14 blend modes.
• Color effect for symbol instances: Brightness, Tint, Advanced (per-channel % and offset) or Alpha; Swap Symbol keeps the transform.
• Buttons: a Button symbol's first four frames are Up / Over / Down / Hit. Control ▸ Enable Simple Buttons (Ctrl+Alt+B) makes them react on the stage.
• Instance names for symbols, text, bitmaps and groups; frame scripts can use them (this.ball.x += 5).
• Text can use any installed font (searchable picker).
• View › Rulers (Ctrl+Alt+Shift+R): drag guides out of the rulers, drop a guide back on a ruler to delete it. View › Grid (Ctrl+') with Snap to Grid and Edit Grid; objects and drawing tools snap to guides and the grid.

Library

Symbols, bitmaps and sounds are listed together (a sound shows its waveform in the preview). The Library fills the rest of the right column under Properties (Properties grows first and pushes it down). Search, sortable Name/Type/Uses/Frames columns, an animated preview with play, and drag-to-stage. View ▸ Library position ▸ Own panel on the left docks it beside the Tools; Ctrl+L hides it.

Scripting

• Window ▸ Actions (F9): frame scripts in JavaScript (this.stop(), this.gotoAndPlay("label")…), sandboxed, run during playback.
• Commands ▸ Script Console: automate the editor in JavaScript (built in), Python, Node.js or Ruby, or any language via a one-line JSON protocol. One undo step per run.
• JSFL: existing .jsfl scripts run through a compatibility layer (fl.getDocumentDOM(), timeline, layers, frames, library, selection).
• Headless: cargo run -p ac-cli -- run examples/scripts/stars.py --gif stars.gif

See SCRIPTING.md for the API, examples and the safety model.

Keyboard

Key	Action	Key	Action
V	Selection	F5 / Shift+F5	Insert / remove frames
Q	Free Transform	F6 / Shift+F6	Insert / clear keyframe
R / O / N	Rectangle / Oval / Line	F7	Blank keyframe
Y	Pencil	F8 / Ctrl+F8	Convert to / new symbol
K	Paint Bucket	Delete	Delete objects, or clear selected frames
H or Space	Hand	Ctrl+X / C / V	Cut / copy / paste (Shift+V = in place)
Arrows	Nudge (Shift = 10 px)	Ctrl+D / Ctrl+A / Ctrl+B	Duplicate / select all / break apart
Enter	Play / stop	Ctrl+Z / Ctrl+Shift+Z	Undo / redo
Esc	Deselect, then leave symbol	Ctrl+1 / Ctrl+2	100% / fit
F9	Actions panel	F2	Output panel
Ctrl+T	Transform panel	Ctrl+L	Library
Ctrl+G / Ctrl+Shift+G	Group / Ungroup	Ctrl+K / Ctrl+I	Align / Info panels
Ctrl+R	Import to stage	Ctrl+Shift+F12	Publish Settings
Ctrl+N / Ctrl+O / Ctrl+S	New / Open / Save	Ctrl+' / Ctrl+;	Grid / Guides
W / G	3D Rotation / Translation	M / U / B	Bone / Width / Fluid Brush
Ctrl+Shift+H	Add shape hint	Shift+F2	Scene panel
Ctrl+Alt+B	Enable Simple Buttons	Ctrl+drag last frame	Lengthen / shorten a layer
J	Object Drawing on/off	Esc	Deselect (merges a floating shape selection)

UI smoke testing

tools/ui_drive.py drives the real app under Xvfb with synthetic mouse and keyboard input (needs pip install python-xlib). See log/devlog.md.

See CLAUDE.md for the full feature map, architecture and roadmap. Continuing the work? Start with docs/HANDOFF.md: current status, the step-by-step process, the P2 plan in groups of five, and the open gaps.

Legal and provenance

Flare is an independent project. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by Adobe; "Adobe", "Animate" and "Flash" are trademarks of Adobe and are used here only to describe compatibility.

It is written clean-room: from public documentation and the observed behaviour of the user interface, never from Adobe's code, decompiled or disassembled programs, or files taken from an Adobe install (icons, presets, samples, templates). .fla/XFL support is for interoperability and was built from the published structure of the format and files this project wrote itself. The rules every contribution follows are in CONTRIBUTING.md; please report anything that looks out of place.

Licensed MIT OR Apache-2.0. Third-party crates keep their own licences (MIT/Apache/BSD-style, plus MPL-2.0 for the Symphonia audio decoders and usvg, used unmodified).