Apple's Motion Now Shipping

gz76 writes "Apple's high-performance motion graphic design and production application lets you explore new creative territory using self-propelled behavior animation, character-by-character title animation and a powerful new interface. Motion integrates seamlessly with Final Cut Pro HD and DVD Studio Pro 3, making it quicker and easier than ever to create motion graphics for film, video and DVDs. About time!"

Comments

Motion is awesome

[Nexum]

We got to get a sneak peek at WWDC this year, Motion is awesome for the price, the effects are just incredible.

Interestingly Apple are experimenting with the interface, everything can be controlled by gestures, which should please those die-hard fans of this control-method.

There are some things it won't do, I'm not a video-guy so I can't fully remember and I won't attempt to :) but there is room for a Motion 2. Having said that don't let that detract - this is an awesome product, I couldn't believe how easy it was to build simply jaw-dropping effects.

Might be worth the piffling $299 just to play with the thing even if you're not in video PP :)

Motion vs. AfterEffects

[spooje]

I've mucked around with Motion a little bit and in general it's a great app, but not yet mature. I still think AfterEffects 6.5 is a better buy with many more features.

It will be interesting to see what Adobe does with AfterEffects 7.0 and if they include Tiger's upcoming Core image functionality.

Re:A Motion owner speaks

[katanan]

maybe i'm coming off as a bit of an After Effects fanboy but it has to be said. Adobe addressed the rendering issues in 6.5 with the ability to utilize OpenGL in preview rendering. the behaviours type options you describe in Motion seem nice - but once you get really into the advanced functions of After Effects there are behaviours-like options available except just without the "easy to learn" terminology, part of the charm of using After Effect for an advanced user is that the options for effects and such are dealt with in exact variables so by initially learning the animation and manipulation variables outright you know exactly what to tweak and when. (albeit the learning curve for After Effects is akin to a vertical ascent of a sheer ice wall). much of the effort is just working out how to organize keyframing on the timeline and then everything else (the hundreds of possible operations per keyframe) falls into place.

although don't get me wrong it's really nice to see an app with less of a learning curve for motion graphics out and i'm really glad it works well for you. Adobe will have a run for it's money versus Motion when Motion can match the functionality and versatility of AE - not just the ease of use - the fuctions between premiere/after effects/illustrator/photoshop in creating elements to manipulate within compositions is still unmatched. Motion will be great for users seeking various basic effects and text manipulation but for commercial applications After Effects and related apps still take the cake in that the expanse of variables is painstakingly detailed at times.

for teams that tackle things like commercial graphics and film graphic design it is important to tweak everything by hand just to maintain a unique visual style and the more advanced features apply in those uses. I'm not really saying that Motion can't be used in that aspect but to video professionals it may become something akin to seeing an emboss/pixelate photoshop effect on an image for a graphic designer. Point: effects and preset only go so far, for a lot of uses it comes down to detailing (which After Effects still has plenty more of) - well that is just judging from the previews of Motion - inform me if i'm incorrect in this matter.

Re:the myth of apple for video and print

[pressman]

Sorry, but saying Premiere beats FCP out on performance is sheer lunacy. I make my living off of Adobe products (PS, ILL, ID, Acrobat, AE, but Premiere is a bad NLE and it's "real time" performance is laughable.

If you're going to tout the Wintel party line in terms of video post-production, please at least mention the Avid options. Avid is both Win & Mac and they offer a range of products that far surpass Premiere in terms of quality and power.

Featuritis? I want OPTIMIZATION.

[solios]

The odds of Adobe doing anything with Core Image anytime soon are really slim- AE is also a PC app, much like photoshop, which means that Adobe has to balance API-hooking against a portable codebase.

That said, I use AE 6 and it's solid for a lot of things, but it's FREAKING SLOW on a 2x2ghz g5 with 2g ram. And it's time control / scrubbing functionality sucks ass. A BIG, SWEATY ass.

I don't want more features, I want a more tightly optimized app that handles as fluidly as Final Cut Pro.

And it doesn't look like I'll be getting that from Adobe. :P