(Page 1 of 4 pages for this article  1 2 3 >  Last »)

Filed under: Motion Graphics •Year End Lists •

The Top Ten Things After Effects Users Love and Hate about Motion

I teach Motion to a lot of After Effects users. Sometimes they end up in my class because they want to be there; other times their organization has sent them and they arrive kicking and screaming, ready for a fight. Either way, after clearing away a lot of misconceptions and getting them to actually use Motion for 3 days, I find almost every After Effects user comes away with a new respect for - and frustration with - this wonderful yet sometimes annoying application.

So, based on all the feedback I’ve received from After Effects users who have used Motion over the years - with my own opinions liberally thrown in - here are my Top Ten lists for what After Effects Users love and hate about Motion.

First, the love:

1) Final Cut Studio (and Photoshop) Integration.

The ease with which you can drop a Motion project directly into Final Cut Pro or DVD Studio Pro, and the simplicity of the “roundtripping” process for sending clips from Final Cut Pro directly to Motion and back again, really make Motion shine. For a quick title sequence, lower third super, or DVD Motion menu, all without rendering out intermediate movies and all which can be re-edited quickly via the “Open in Editor” command, the workflow can’t be beat. If Final Cut Pro is your NLE of choice, Motion becomes a no-brainer for quick titling and effects work.

The fact that you can import layered Photoshop documents into Motion and retain not only the individual layers but also all the blend modes applied to those layers makes for a great workflow option - and if layers are saved as Smart Objects, even layer styles will pass through to Motion.

2) Master Templates.

The ability to access Motion’s entire template library directly inside Final Cut Studio, and to quickly replace video and text elements without altering the motion graphics design, always impresses AE users - especially those working in a group production environment. What they like the most is the ability to radically modify the existing templates or to create your own from scratch. The Final Cut Pro editors can then use those templates without knowing a thing about Motion.

(Page 1 of 4 pages for this article  1 2 3 >  Last »)

Great comments for comparison this two applications.

Thanks

Libor

Posted by Libor  on  12/07  at  09:41 AM

---

Great post! You’ve nailed the range of pros & cons for these apps in comparison.

I’ll add one: I just tried to retime a clip in Motion from a 5-hour clip of ProRes 1080i (rather large as you can imagine).

Motion wants to create a retime file (created when using Optical Flow) for the *entire* video file, not just the 5-second subclip. Seriously?

Posted by Allan W.  on  12/08  at  05:21 PM

---

Not only would the retime file take *days* of time (3 estimated), but when it actually did so (left open over the weekend, apparently), filled my boot drive completely with about 250GB of retime data - which I then had to hunt for and destroy.

A nice feature, incompletely executed. AE is very strong in that regard.

Posted by Allan W.  on  12/08  at  05:24 PM

---

It might sound like I hate Motion, but nothing could be further from the truth. I’ve found the FCP integration and templates has revolutionized my video workflow. It’s SO much more efficient for lower thirds, bumpers, and intros than AE. The replicators, generators, and behaviors are just fun to use. I have a Mac Pro, Radeon 3870, and 10GB of RAM, so things run pretty smoothly.

AE does look better most of the time - better 3D controls, DOF, expressions, etc. It’s still more powerful when you need to create a piece entirely in that app (say, a commercial or show bumper). If you’re using (stuck with?) Premiere you get the same kind of integration that FCP enjoys with Motion.

But Motion has let me focus on getting stuff done simply and more quickly. Knowing its limitations and advantages has let me know when to choose which program.

Posted by Allan W.  on  12/08  at  05:34 PM

---

Name:

Email:

Location:

URL:

Smileys

Remember my personal information

Notify me of follow-up comments?

Submit the word you see below: