Shake and Motion

DBoz699

DBoz699

Veteran
Ive been reading up on Apple's video programs. They seem pretty amazing as to what they can do. But I'm a tad puzzled. Whats the difference between Shake and Motion? Is Motion just like a program to make particle effects and Shake a compositing program? I'm not sure...so I figured Id ask all you FCP users.
 
Shake is more than just a compositing program, but is very hard to use... IMO. Motion is a very simple yet powerful version of After Effects. It can do most of what AE does EXCEPT work in 3d space.

I have AE and Shake and I use AE for almost everything. Plus, depending on what computer you have... or will get... you'll need a fairly new and powerful graphic's card to run Motion.

Good luck,

CaptM
 
The reason I ask is because I was thinking of buying a Mac computer along with Final cut pro studio with Shake and Motion. I just wanted to clarify the differences so I know what to buy. Hm... i think i might just stick with Shake as the program..but you say its hard to use...is like one of those programs where you can sit there and learn and become a beast at it? or is it the kind of program where you have to read the 300,000,000 pages that come with the manual?
 
Ok guys...

Motion IS shake, but dummed down, put behind a kiss-face interface, and has about 75% of the features removed. Its still, is a great program. You're probably not going to composite in it - and you're better off using FCP.

You've got to look at the price ratio although. Shake costs 1,999. Motion, $299. Or so.

Shake isn't really "hard" to use, it uses what the industry now would call "Non-linear" effects - meaning the comp's you make are highly scalable, changable, and re-usable. You edit based on "nodes" that you can patch into other nodes and eventually make a composition, but you can move inbetween the nodes at any given point, change a variable and update all of the variables everywhere in the nodes that are being effected in real time. Theres a decent sized community that shares their macro's and scripts they've made.

It simply makes working with composition and special/fx (and motion graphics if thats your thing) easier, and very precicse. The curve editor is second to none, and most everything is scriptable - and I could go on and on.

Motion is not uncommon with being used on academy award winning movies such as Titanic and the Lord of the Ring Series.

As far as learning it, it will take some time - perhaps a week or two, but get the training series from vfx, which covers pretty much most of everything - but I've found myself watching certain portions over and over, and eventually you should learn it to the point where all you'll really need to do is go into the reference manual to look up stuff. Anyway, you cannot learn shake by simply using it, and if you just read the manual, thats probably not enough. It comes with a lot of tutorials that are decent, but the video training is the key.

Having used/learned shake, I will most undoutebly say that it is a top notch program, and a pleasure to work with given your system is up to spec. I use it on a DP 1.8 with 4.5 gigs ram ,radeon 9800 se, and an internal SATA-raid.
 
Shake looks pretty straight forward to me. Never used it but the movies on their site seem to make it look easy enough.
 
Motion just came out last year so it's unlikely to have been used on Titantic and other features.
Certainly if you're doing real compositing (as opposed to advanced motion graphics) Shake or After Effects are better.

Shake isn't difficult to use but it does have some quirks and they have yet to update the UI in the last 5 years. Best bet is to buy the PeachPit book on Shake. It has a CD (DVD?) with a demo that can be activated for 30 days so you can try it out.
 
Thanks. Because I think I'm better off with Shake. If you say they almost the same in the sense of making motions. But i also do alot of compositing. Thanks for your all your info everyone.
 
Nope, I'm talking about shake. Then again, I've never used the software so take my comment for what it is worth!
 
Unless you're doing high end compositing, motion tracking, keying, etc... Shake will be overkill for most use (DV). Best bet is After Effects. I've used AE, Shake, Combustion, Flame, etc. I still keep going back to AE for 99% of my workflow, as it's flexible and will do just about everything.

My 3 cents.
 
I agree Kai. Heck, AE 6.5 pro comes with Keylight - the same plugin that Shake uses. The only real difference is the interface (Shake does have Primatte as well but Keylight should be more than enough).
 
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