Rive is without doubt my favorite design tool at the moment. The ability to create fully fleshed out state machine animations without a single line of code is truly remarkable. On top of that it also has great performance and low file sizes.
Used for:
Vector animation & interactive animation
Try hovering the crab
Adobe Illustrator
Adobe Illustrator is probably my most used software of all time. Although I use more specialized software for many design tasks nowadays I could definitely make due with Illustrator if it was all I had.
Used for:
Any vector design that isn't too text heavy
Adobe After Effects
Adobe After Effects is a fantastic software for motion graphics (when it doesn't crash) and what i use for most raster graphic productions.
Used for:
Most 2D raster motion graphics
Adobe InDesign
Adobe InDesign is a must when doing multipage designs for print, especially if it has a lot of text and layout.
Used for:
Text heavy multipage designs
Adobe Photoshop
Adobe Photoshop/Lightroom is fantastic software for photo editing. It's also great for digital illustration though it's not my prefered software.
Used for:
Photo editing, Raster design
Clip Studio Paint
Clip Studio Paint is by far my favorite software for raster illustration. It is a software dedicated to illustration & frame by frame animation, and it shows.
Used for:
Raster Illustration, frame by frame animation
Blender
Although it isn't my most used software, Blender is one of my favorite conceptually. It truly showcases the potential of open source projects. I cannot recommend it enough if you want to do 3D.
Used for:
3D-modeling & 3D animation
Webflow
Webflow is a fantastic tool if you know how to code websites, but prefer a more visual approach. It truly feels like prototyping in a design software while you're actually developing the finished product.
Used for:
Web design & development
Figma
Figma is a great way to prototype for web and mobile applications. I also find it to be the best way to make editable layout-heavy designs, as long as they're relatively small in scope.
Used for:
Prototyping & layout design
Spine
Spine is very similar to Rive, but its use is more catered towards games. It's a great software to rig game characters without being bound by a specific game engine.
