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Motion 4 VS. After Effects

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harmonica44

I am wanting to decide whether to buy Final Cut Studio or Adobe Creative Suite, since I will be buying an older version to fit my computer, and both are soon to be extinct.

I have read about a lot of other programs but since I wanna do a lot of postwork, these two are probably the ones to concentrate on choosing which package. I to do post work, such as splicing in CGI, set extensions, stuff like that. I have read plenty of websites that compare both but I am kinda computer illiterate with this stuff. My friend has After Effects and has taught me some ins and outs, but Motion is being sold cheaper some places. Are they essentially the same, or any catches I should be aware of before buying? Both programs talk a lot about 3D and real time. However by 3D are they talking about making a 3D movie, cause I won't want to that. Plus I cannot find out what they mean by real time in that context. Thanks.
 
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Motion is dying. After Effects is a better solution. However, it sounds like you have a lot to learn about post. You should download the trial versions and get your feet wet and learn some terminology.
 
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I would download free trials but I am a long way from doing post effects. So I wouldn't know if they work for me or not. I just wanna get a whole package now since it's cheaper, then move onto post effects when I get there. I can afford a package now, and it's better than buying them individually. How is Motion dying, exactly?
 
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Always, always try the software out first. Shoot some test footage and add fx to them. You don't have to wait till you get a film shot in order to get into the post production phase. Grab a cam and go shoot some impromtu stuff. Hate to see you just got out and buy a peice of software and when the time comes, you don't like using it.

Me, I'm an After Effects kinda guy. Been using it since version 6.5. Also there's quite a bit of training for it especially at this site: http://www.videocopilot.net

Hope this helps :)
 
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I have both, and after trying to get into Motion for several months, I just gave up. It tries to hold your hand way too much, which actually makes it more difficult when you are trying to do a very specific effect. So, I purchased After Effects, which is much more my style. Masking is so much more intuitive, keyframing is easy, and the Roto Brush is a great tool.

But as others have said, you really need to just go shoot some footage and demo the software first. If you can't do that, then why are you even wanting to purchase software now? AE or Motion is not something you can just immediately start using to produce great effects. It takes time to learn and develop skill. Indeed, http://www.videocopilot.net and http://www.creativecow.net are excellent resources to learn from.

Personally, I don't buy anything unless I know for a fact that it is needed for multiple projects. I've been making shorts since 2006, yet only bought AE last year.
 
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After Effects all the way. Motion can't do a tenth of what AFX can do. Plus, as a newbie, there's about 4000x the information and tutorials for After Effects vs Motion.

Also, why would you buy it now if you aren't going to use it in the near future? Adobe releases updates every 12-18 months. By the time you're ready to use it you could buy CS5 or 5.5 as a used outdated version instead of CS4 or CS3. 5 is killer, major jump in speed and everything from previous versions.

Now, If you wanted to buy new now to take advantage of the 50% sale that Adobe has going on for another few weeks, that's wise.
 
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Having just learned both Motion and AE and used them both for my latest feature I can give you my (relative newby) feedback:

Ease of use: Motion wins. Although, like voodoo says, it does try to second-guess your needs, which can be annoying at times, I was able to figure it out fairly quickly without any help other than the user manual. AE, on the other hand, took me many weeks of viewing online tutorials, plus a live demonstration from my AE-savvy cousin, before I reached any level of comfort, and I've still just barely broached on its full potential.

Capabilities: AE wins. Though Motion has a lot more interesting effects built into the software that you can simply access via point & click, AE seems nearly limitless in what it can do if you know what you're doing.

Speed: This was the big one for me because I'm using an old Mac G5. If you have a newer, fast computer this may be irrelevant. Motion was great if I was only working with one or two layers; beyond that it began to bog down -- and I mean exponentially. If I got to 6 or more layers, forget about it -- spinning beachball of doom. With AE, on the other hand, I could pile on 20 layers and, although processing time increased accordingly, it rarely if ever locked up.

My conclusion: I personally would go with AE, if only because of the speed factor. For complex effects, Motion was absolutely useless on my old machine. Again, if your machine is fast, this may not be a factor for you.

P.S. - Strictly for titling, I'd go with Motion. AE can do all the same stuff, but Motion has so many built-in effects that you just click on and go that it takes a fraction of the time.
 
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harmonica44 said:
What do you mean when you say complex effects? What counts as complex?
Click to expand...

What I meant was, the more layers an effects shot has, the more complex it is. On my machine, Motion bogged down and locked up with multi-layered effects; AE did not.

If you don't understand what I mean by "layers" you will as soon as you begin using either of these programs.
 
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PaulGriffith said:
After Effects all the way. Motion can't do a tenth of what AFX can do. Plus, as a newbie, there's about 4000x the information and tutorials for After Effects vs Motion.

Also, why would you buy it now if you aren't going to use it in the near future? Adobe releases updates every 12-18 months. By the time you're ready to use it you could buy CS5 or 5.5 as a used outdated version instead of CS4 or CS3. 5 is killer, major jump in speed and everything from previous versions.

Now, If you wanted to buy new now to take advantage of the 50% sale that Adobe has going on for another few weeks, that's wise.
Click to expand...

That's another thing. Adobe has this thing where they will release all these updates, and by the time I use it, it is outdated. But I can still use CS4 even though it's outdated right, I mean no film festival or distributor ever complains about a movie being made with four year old software as oppose to one year old, so it shouldn't be a problem, unless of course I'm missing something.

K I wanna try to use the trial versions of both to see which one I like better. So since I have to order a package right away now, I'll shoot a scene, and try to splice it in as a set extension, to other footage I've shot. Will After Effects do that on the free trial?
 
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Seems like it. I have shot some footage that I will add effects to once I get the Action Essentials DVD. But I wanna get a package soon since I wanna practice more editing and what not, and sound editing for now. I will do the free trial of AE and Motion, but you can't learn enough in a 30 day free trial. Especially since AE is a lot to learn. I won't know all of AE's capabilities, and all of Motions limits, in 30 days either. I will still get the free trial but will probably end up picking AE anyway even though I won't know much about it, since Motion has it's limits, as it's been said.
 
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You know every post on here has said "pick After Effects"...

Do you not believe us or something? You're going to spend a month learning software you won't use. Sounds pretty backwards.
 
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No you're right I believe you. It's just a might get the motion free trial anyway, since I want to practice a special effect right now, and since AE takes years to learn as pointed out, I thought for a free trial I'd practice with something quicker. But you're right, since I should get AE as pointed out I'll just the 30 day free trial of that. I'm on it.
 
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harmonica44 said:
No you're right I believe you. It's just a might get the motion free trial anyway, since I want to practice a special effect right now, and since AE takes years to learn as pointed out, I thought for a free trial I'd practice with something quicker. But you're right, since I should get AE as pointed out I'll just the 30 day free trial of that. I'm on it.
Click to expand...

Learning motion is a waste of time, whether you spend one month or one day or one hour on it. Every second you spend on it is a waste of time because you won't end up using it.

After Effects doesn't take years to learn. If you spend one month on doing nothing but After Effects, you'll be good at it. If you spend one month hanging on to every word by Andrew Kramer you will become reasonably good at After Effects.

Even if somebody gives you the latest and greatest version of Motion, don't waste your time on it.
Aveek
 
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shhh, dont tell anyone, but EVERYTHING Iv learned about AE I learned from this forum and videocopilot.net .. thats all you need.

EDIT: being of above average intelligence and having a bucket load of creative genius helps.. :)
 
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