cs3 after effects vs. motion

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Felonybmx

Member
I'm really just getting into the whole post production thing. I'm learning FCP and loving it. But what I really want to learn is motion graphics and effects, etc. Where should I focus: after effects or motion? Anyone know any good books? videocopilot.net is amazing!

Thanks
 
Motion is better for titling and animation effects. After Effects is better at compositing(though Shake is arguably even better.) Knowing all 3 wouldn't be a bad idea.

Noah
 
I'd say there are more things you can do in After Effects that you can't do in Motion than there are things you can do in Motion but not After Effects...

Motion is slightly more user-friendly. Which is not always a good thing.
 
I've used both for a number of projects– After Effects has a steeper learning curve but a better payoff. Especially if you invest in some good plugins like trapcode, zaxwerks, and the foundry set.

Either way be prepared to spend some time looking at tuturials and making a couple mock projects to get yourself comfortable. Speaking of tutorials/support, you will find much more of that for AE (creative cow, videocopilot, ayatoweb, etc) than you will motion.

Noah is right about the titling– if you need to whip up some text FX, motion can do that quick and easy. Both AE and Motion have text FX presets, but motion gives you a thumbnail for each and easy options for text looks.
 
If you want to push them to the limit, AE offers more. If you are married to the FCP workflow, Motion might be a better overall fit.
 
Sorry if this is a dumb question, but I'm looking to get started on doing more effects on my videos and was wondering whether motion has good compositing effects. I saw good tutorials for the "time freeze" effect, demon face (face warping) effect and the muzzle flash effect at videocopilot using after effects and their plug-ins. Can motion do as good a job on these elements?
 
Okay, no responses...

I've read that Apple's Shake 4 is more comparable to AE7. Are there any tutorials on Shake that are as good as the ones videocopilot has for AE7?
 
Cool. Thanks for the reply. I've looked around and there don't seem to be any really good tutorials available for Shake which are comparable to videocopiliot's tutorials for AE 7's.
 
I use all three -- all for different things. Probably because of my limited knowledge in all three (Shake Motion AE).

However... here's my thoughts.

Shake: THE BEST compositing app of the three. But only because you control every minute detail of the key and the tracking. No plug-n-play with Shake. You build it from the ground up. An AE key might be two keying effects and a color effect... in shake it could be as many as 30 nodes to get a single key and composite. TRACKING is better in shake. The video doesn't go away once it leaves the viewer like in AE (yes, ways to fix that with pre-comp'd sequences and larger work areas etc... but a big pain). CONS - 3d space is a joke! More like 220degree space. Don't look to Shake to BUILD your effect... only composite an effect you made elsewhere.

AE: I love the 3d environment in AE. If I am going to build something with elements in 3d space I ALWAYS go to AE. Text effects... Overlays... Photoshop-esque layering techniques... Photo montages... Trapcode stuff is amazing and I'm always using those for different projects.

Motion: I know this the least. I'm not big on 'guessing' motion of an element and I always feel Motion forces me to guess. I do like the hands on 'move-it-here-at-this-time' kind of feel... but I'm just not super voiced in the workflow. Yes... I love the new 3d space and compatibility with FC... but it isn't AE. Compositing and keying is ok with Motion... Good friend says better than AE, but not Shake. DOn't know... haven't really tried myself.

Good luck,

CaptM

OH -- EDIT:

Some 'get ya started' tutorials on SHAKE:

http://leaders.creativecow.net/product/154

CaptM
 
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<--- AE user for a few years, and recently certified in Motion 3....

When Motion runs well, (still buggy at times) the 3D camera functions work fast and easily. After taking the Motion training class, I feel that I will choose Motion for any 3D space camera projects (which I did not expect) You can definitiely tweak more in AE.

The lights in Motion are a joke. You can't assign them, they're all global = weak.

Particles I can see using Motion for also... I love that you can loop playback of your project while making tweaks.

The stroke/paint in Motion is OK for some quick "swirly-swirly" as my friend calls it, but anything specific will need to be with AE>Trapcode.

I have not used Shake but am interested in taking some courses for it at some point.

I can see still using AE for the bulk of my work, but Motion has it's good points where it will be used also. Saying that, a lot of times I hop into AE just for it's plugins....
 
G-Man said:
Cool. Thanks for the reply. I've looked around and there don't seem to be any really good tutorials available for Shake which are comparable to videocopiliot's tutorials for AE 7's.
Click to expand...

the book shake 4 by marco paolini has a dvd with lesson folders in it

i just went through it in about two weeks, gives a wonderful base knowledge of shake

no previous experience needed
 
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