After Effects vs. Motion

G

GregJ

Active member
Newbie question: How does Motion compare to After Effects?

I have access to both, although my Mac setup (with FCS2) is newer and much more powerful than my After Effects setup, which is Pro 6.5 on an older laptop.

If I didn't have time to learn both--which I don't--which one should I concentrate on learning?

Or is it apples and oranges?
 
If I was in that position, I would go with Motion only because you do not have a lot of time invested in AE. AE is really good and can do amazing work if you've become good at it, but so can Motion. If you are use to Adobe interface and are into keyframing everything, AE is a good fit. Motion is not an easy program either, but the realtime feedback and semi-3D is pretty damn good in the new version. Integration with FCP is pretty seamless too.

On the other hand AE is pretty well integrated with PS and Ill, so that's a toss up. And AE has a lot of 3rd party plug ins that you won't find in Motion.

I don't think you'll be sorry with either, but I would invest my time with Motion if I had to choose just so I could do a lot of everyday stuff quickly.

Good luck.
 
Keep in mind that AE does compositing as well as motion graphics. I don't believe Motion does.

Motion is much more newbie-friendly... but AE is a much more powerful tool (in my opinion) once you've mastered it.
 
DeVi| D0do said:
Keep in mind that AE does compositing as well as motion graphics. I don't believe Motion does.
Click to expand...

This is not correct--Motion does do compositing. The two applications have become very similiar in their functionality. In fact, Stu Maschwitz, a long time supporter of AE, recently said on his ProLost blog that currently "AE's only leg up on Motion is that it can handle much more complex compositing." He goes on to say that users of AE are punished for doing exactly these kinds of complex projects because of the difficulty in navigating those projects in AE.

I think either application would serve you well. If you plan on doing complex compositing, you may want to opt for AE. Or you could try Shake, which is a terrific application designed specifically for such projects.

Kevin
 
I've been using AE for about 2 years now, and in the last couple months, I tried out Motion. (v1)

What a headache. I love my apple products, but Motion just doesn't do it for me. I have a really hard time doing things without keyframes.

IMO, if you have used FCP or Premier or are just pretty solid on keyframing, then go with AE. There are LOTS of tutorials for AE, and there are NOWHERE NEAR AS MANY for Motion. Watch a couple of these,
once you learn the interface, you'll see the magic of some of the plug-ins and mask keyframing. Check out creativecow.org, and jsut do a google search and you'll find a bunch. I do them when I'm bored at work :)
 
AE I think likely has a tougher learning curve than Motion. Apple is pretty good about making its applications user friendly. While Motion has certainly got a great upgrade now, I think one of the big sellers for AE over Motion is userbase. Even amongst the FCP userbase you have lots of people that are staunch AE users still. Plus AE has Mac, Windows, and Linux based users to draw from. Its a far older application so longer length of time to build up that user base (and knowledge about its functions). If you think you'll be fine grappling with things on your own I'd go with Motion, but if you think you're going to spend a lot of time on online forums (here or elsewhere), looking into tutorials/books/etc, then I'd lean towards AE.

cheers.
 
arges03 said:
What a headache. I love my apple products, but Motion just doesn't do it for me. I have a really hard time doing things without keyframes.
QUOTE]

I am not intending to be an advocate for Motion, although I do like the application, but I have to point out that you can use keyframes in Motion (I almost always do), you just don't have to if you don't want to while you are roughing out an idea. I find the keyframing function in Motion to be quite easy to use, and you can start out without using keyframes and then turn them on to tweak the parameters of what you are working on. Also, the application is now at version 3, so I wouldn't want to evaluate it based on v.1.

Kevin
Click to expand...
 
Having used Motion, AE and Now Motion2, I can tell you that Motion2 is no toy.

I honestly believe it can compete with AE now.

In particular, i have been working within the 3-d space now available in Motion2. I feel it to be pretty intuitive once you RTFM and understand what is going on.
 
Look 1st said:
....I feel it to be pretty intuitive once you RTFM and understand what is going on.
Click to expand...

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!:crybaby:

On a side note I seriously think as a direct result of the past decade being so e-oriented and my time being used for computer stuff instead of reading I've become A.D.D. If I RTFM it puts me to sleep almost instantly. If I watch DVD tutorials I find myself squirming in my chair and yelling at the screen to hurry up. Note to DVD training producers out there, tell your instructors to explain clearly but quickly. There's nothing worse than the ones where they take 5 minutes to explain something super simple and then skip over the complex stuff where I need hand holding.
 
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