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There;s a $50 software called Affinity (I think) that's supposedly a competitor for Illustrator... and that's a one-time payment! Might be good for you to check out, it seems quite robust... I can't switch to it since all my files are made in illustrator...

Ohmygod...that's certainly more affordable! Google has comparisons for Affinity Designer and Adobe Illustrator which means something. Looks kind of like the comparison between Paintshop and Photoshop...the latter of which is also subscription and out of my range. Thank you for letting me know about it! <3

They might even have a trial version :)

Yep, I really resent the whole "rent your software" scheme... but it's their prerogative... I can get by with outdated photoshop and illustrator, but I need the CC version of after effects to do much of anything with motion graphics, so I'm stuck.

There's free motion graphic software out there, but again, the shift would be too difficult at this point.