Glad to hear the timing should work out for you @Phillip. Iām working hard on buttoning things up here, so sit back and enjoy the blog posts and videos. 
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I was wondering how you set the animation with the background tool? My latest site uses the animated banner tool as most of the page on three pages. As I understand many tools are being combined which share a lot of overlap. That makes sense to me since you will buy an add on like Thunder and Potion and some of those tools come with a degree of overlap that could be consolidated.
What animation are you referring to specifically? Something in the video or something in an existing Foundry 2 tool?
What āanimated banner toolā are you talking about that youāre referencing using on your current site?
In Foundry 2 you use the banner tool go to banner style and pick āanimated gradient color picker.ā
To me it sounded like you said what would require two tools in Foundry 2 (banner and backdrop) are going to be consolidated?
The āanimated gradient color pickerā has been removed. It was a feature that saw hardly any use and was quite processor intensive.
Using the āanimated gradient color pickerā does not require two tools. That said, yes, Banner, Backdrop and Jumbotron have gone away and will be replaced by Background. As I stated in my blog post:
āI was very thoughtful about their feature sets, and since everything was being completely re-written, I took this time to prune some features that werenāt seeing much use as well as add quite a few more.ā
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I could make a case for why it is a good feature. I had a list of objectives for my second Foundry site. One of them was to add movement to the page. I felt many websites make pages that are very distracting. I have been to sites where they had multiple videos auto-playing as I was trying to get through an article as one example.
A lot of my goal for making this page was how to have movement on a page to make it more interesting then a static page but finding the balance between not having so much movement that it drives the visitor crazy. This page starts with a 2-3 second reveal animation but after the big animation ended I wanted there to keep that movement going without it distracting the reader. For an example the colors I chose are close on the color wheel so some may barely notice it is changing.
There might be some tweaks to add to this page, like perhaps the cycle duration needs to be closer to 60 seconds instead of 30, but I feel that the basic idea doesnāt need to be radically changed. This other page isnāt 100% where I want it to be yet but one thing I really like is I put a backdrop tool with a png of 20% opacity in it and you can see the changing color through the image! I at least think that is pretty cool.
For processor intensity I am testing this site on a six year old iMac (which is not one of the fast Pro models), a pretty slow internet connection, and the cheapest entry level iPad my Dad could find at Costco. I think this page loads pretty well on those older and slower devices.
I appreciate that you enjoy the animated gradient feature of the old Banner tool. The good news is the feature still exists in Foundry 2. You can still use it there. It is just not a feature that Iāll be bringing over to Foundry 3.
It just wasnāt a feature getting much use, so it is extra code that was always present but being used only a fraction of the time. I truly think the features that the new Background tool has outweigh the loss of this animated gradient feature, even though I know youāll miss it if you decide to use Foundry 3. For that I am sorry.
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In a lot of ways what I like about a feature is that it is not overused too much. I donāt just mean this one animation feature in particular but in general too.
Will the functionality that is removed from Foundry 3 get moved to an add-on pack like Thunder or Potion? I would imagine that Foundry 2 will stop working at some point.
No add-on packs for Foundry 3. New functionality will be rolled in updates to Foundry itself.
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I thought Iād take today to answer a few of the questions Iāve seen come through my support inbox over the last few days regarding Foundry 3.
[Q.] Can I use Foundry 2ās tools within Foundry 3?
[A.] No. Foundry 2 and Foundry 3 are completely different under the hood and are based around vastly different versions of Bootstrap. Each versionās tools are not cross compatible with one another. As a result of this Iāve included a lot of the functionality from Foundry 2ās Potion and Thunder add-on packs into Foundry 3ās tools.
[Q.] I have a new site I need to build ASAP! When will Foundry 3 be released?
[A.] Iāll be announcing the release date next week. I promise it will not be a long wait though.
[Q.] Can I buy it early and use the beta?
[A.] No, the beta is not available for sale. Additionally even if it were youād have no documentation to view as Foundry 3ās DOCs have not been published anywhere accessible to the public. Hang in there, it wonāt be a long wait.
[Q.] What version of Stacks do I need to be using for Foundry 3?
[A.] Foundry 3 will run in Stacks 4 or 5. That said I highly recommend Stacks 5. The latest version of Stacks allows me to check the macOS version number, among other things, to help customize your experience with things like Toolbox. Additionally the Stacks 5 Smart Groups will help you in organizing your Library of tools.
[Q.] What version of RapidWeaver should I be running for Foundry 3?
[A.] Foundry 3 will work in both RapidWeaver Classic as well as RapidWeaver 8.
[Q.] Can I upgrade my current Foundry 2 site to Foundry 3?
[A.] Foundry 3 has been completely re-engineered from the ground up. Every tool has been re-written from scratch. These changes bring more power and speed to both Foundry and your sites, while maintaining drag-and-drop ease. Because of this, Foundry 3 is not directly backwards compatible with Foundry 2.
But donāt fret just yet! Foundry 2 and Foundry 3 safely co-exist in your Stacks library with no problem. This means you can use the latest and greatest Foundry 3 for building new, modern sites, or retooling old ones from the ground up, while still maintaining existing sites with Foundry 2.
[Q.] Will the legacy documentation for Foundry 2 be available still after Foundry 3 launches?
[A.] Yes. Iāve duplicated the Foundry 2 DOCs to their own sub-domain that youāll have access to in the event you need it.
If you have questions relating to anything Iāve shown up to this point let me know. You can shoot me a direct message or post in this thread. That said thereās a lot more to share with
everyone in the coming days.
Hereās a look at the topics for the next few blog posts and videos:
- Jan. 27, 2023 ā āSpeeding up your workflow within Edit Modeā +
- Jan. 30, 2023 ā āFoundryās new color palettes will keep you color coordinatedā +
- Feb. 01, 2023 ā āCraft custom styles for your Foundry-based site using Blacksmithā +
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One thing I will say since I donāt have a blog post or video today ā Your purchase of Foundry 3 will include a set of reusable templates which include designs for banners, call to action sections, footers, navigation and more. Youāll also receive 3 Starter Kits (pre-built project files), which also include their own reusable templates within them.
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Hi Adam, I bought Foundry, Potion Pack, Thunder Pack and Alloy last week, the royal flush of them all. Just started building a site with them, is it worth me saying to the customer just hang fire a while and I wait for Foundry 3? Also what is the upgrade path, if I had heard the news last week instead of this week I would have held out 
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What about flux? Is that just a foundation 2 thing?
Further to last comment I have to say I am loving the approach you have to columns, at first it was different than what I am used to and decided I didnāt like them, then after using them I thought wow, I donāt have to rebuild, re-insert new column structures etc, I can just modify if I change a design layout halfway through. In summary, I love the Foundry columns
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That would be up to you and your client, I canāt really advise you there. There will be a grace period for customers who purchased Foundry 2 recently.
Yeah, that is the way things happens, right?! When you ask about Upgrade Path, what are you referring to specifically?
I think you mean Foundry, right? If so, Flux is not tied to Foundry. It is not a Foundry-based tool. Flux can be used with any theme. That said it works quite well with Foundry though. This means Flux is unaffected by this Foundry update since theyāre not tied together in any way.
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Theyāre about to become a little different in Foundry 3, but more versatile and with double the number of breakpoints.
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I was meaning cost, if it is only a few weeks or so is there a reduced upgrade option? I havenāt completed a site yet in Foundry 2 but Foundry 3 being very soon Iām thinking āAaaargh!!! Iāve just spent Ā£200 and the system is soon to be redundantā¦ ooh I feel wobbly I need a little sit downā
Hey donāt think Iām complaining, this is progress and exciting, itās nice and rare when you get a new system, put it through its paces, get to know strengths, think it would be nice if could also do this, in my case SVG tools and Wham! I see in your video an SVG tool in the preview video and I think āYesss!ā. Itās just now Iām thinking Foundry 2 wonāt see any published action beacuse Foundry 3 is very soon, so wondering if there is a reduced cost upgrade.
Tah - Ben
The grace period I spoke of above means that anyone who purchased within a specific period of time leading up to Foundry 3ās release will receive a free upgrade. This is how the Foundry v1 to v2 upgrade worked as well as the Alloy v2 to Alloy v3 upgrade.
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Ooh I see what you mean now, blimey, what a guy! Thanks. If release is later rather than sooner I understand if it will inccur an upgrade fee though, really looking forward to its release. Thanks again