AE, Shake, and now Motion 3? layman's terms??

[ryan brown]

OK, I've been an FCP editor for a couple years now, dabbled in AE and motion a bit, but it's time for me to take it to the next level as far as effects and motion graphics.

I want to put all of my energy into learning one program first.

Can someone please explain the difference's/benifits of each program? which should I start with? do you think the newest version of Motion will be "all that"?




I'm not planning on doing any extensive 3d modeling or anything, and as for now I doubt I'll be using ANY of the programs to their full potential, I just need to able to produce pro quality graphics, effects, and comps here and there.

Yes, I know this is a broad questions, and a lot depends on what I'll be working on... but the problem is I don't know what I'll be working on. I just want the knowledge to be able to say "yeah, I can do that for you in house".

I'd LOVE it if Motion could acomplish everything cause it make's more sense to me than the other programs, but if it can't do everything I'll need it for, I'll stick with AE. I've never even played around with SHAKE, but I'm open to hearing more about it.

I'm thinking in terms of green/blue screens, tracking, graphics, etc.

Any thoughts?

-brown

 

[krestofre]

AE is probably the broadest stroke of all of those programs. Motion 3 looks great and I can't wait to get my hands on it, but it looks like AE is going to be more powerful. I imagine that one day Motion will catch up, unless Motion and Shake merge into one program for Apple's Phenomenon program that's supposed to come out next year (yeah, I know I'm only adding to your confusion there).

Shake is my favorite of the above programs, but it's also probably the most specialized. It's basically a pure compositing app. No particle effects, no motion graphics built in. You feed Shake all of your elements and then use Shake to put them together. It's workflow is fantastic and it's a program that I can honestly say I just love to use. I open shake and when I see the workspace I just smile. I don't know why I clicked with Shake so much, but I hate that it's EOL.

Honestly each program that you've listed is well suited to its own particular task. AE is the one that covers the most varied ground, but it's not as powerful of a compositor as Shake is. I also can't build a motion graphic project as quickly in AE as I can in Motion. So the question you propose is a difficult one. If you had to choose one app from the three then AE covers the most ground, even if it doesn't cover some ground as well at the other two.

Does that help? Probably not.

 

[ryan brown]

If you had to choose one app from the three then AE covers the most ground, even if it doesn't cover some ground as well at the other two.

Does that help? Probably not.

That's what I thought, and that just reinforces my own opinions... I think I'm just maybe hoping that Motion could compete, cause I feel more comfortabe (off the bat) with the workflow.

Yes, it helps, and thanks.



Still looking for others opinions, too.

-brown

 

[bigbossbmb]

I'm thinking in terms of green/blue screens, tracking, graphics, etc.

Any thoughts?

For blue/green screen and tracking, Shake is the best of the three programs hands down (the $499 price tag makes it all the better). I would highly recommend picking it up with the Apple Pro Training Series book.

AE is still a very good program and has some different uses. More motion graphics stuff. Once you learn both, you will know which programs you will use for each task. Some things are easier with AE's layer-based timeline and some thing adapt well with Shake's node-based workflow.

 

[Kholi]

I'll be using both. Motion 3 Looks pretty damned good to me and I like the interface. Call it newbish, but you can get stuff done pretty quick in motion.

The two together will be great.