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After Effects users, are you happy?
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[Walter Soyka] “If you like how it was before better than how it is at the moment, that’s still an option.”
I could always walk everything back to FCP7, too!
😀
I’m sure Adobe knows what they are doing, but there is a lot to dislike in general usability at the moment, and I think they can only get away with it because there isn’t a suitable replacement.
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[Oliver Peters] “Fusion and Nuke and others are node-based compositors and as such can only do part of what AE does. Especially in the area of motion graphics.”
Would you care to elaborate on where you think Fusion (and/or Nuke) doesn’t stack up in terms of motion graphics?
It’s an interesting question – I have seen some outstanding mograph done in both applications. But what are the theoretical and/or practical limits?
Simon Ubsdell
tokyo productions
hawaiki -
[Simon Ubsdell] “Would you care to elaborate on where you think Fusion (and/or Nuke) doesn’t stack up in terms of motion graphics? “
And I’ve seen some of your tutorials on Fusion lately, so you are certainly ahead of the curve on that. I still think motion graphics tend to work better with layers and a timeline. Plus a lot of these start as layered Photoshop files, so there’s a natural integration there with AE. I’m not sure if Fusion preserves PSD layers with layer effects or not.
A lot of the motion graphics I need get handed over to an artist not as a series of individual files, but rather as a set of shots or a flattened sequence as the base layer or plate. Then the artist embellishes that with graphics. So they are working across several shots, not just clip by clip. For instance, this might be an overall treatment of a complete commercial. It’s my impression – and I could well be wrong – that AE is more conducive to such a workflow.
– Oliver
Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com -
[Jeremy Garchow] “I’m sure Adobe knows what they are doing, but there is a lot to dislike in general usability at the moment, and I think they can only get away with it because there isn’t a suitable replacement.”
You might want to also pose this same question in the Adobe AE or Creative Cloud Debate forums. I’m sure others are having the same concerns.
– Oliver
Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com -
[Jeremy Garchow] “I’m sure Adobe knows what they are doing, but there is a lot to dislike in general usability at the moment, and I think they can only get away with it because there isn’t a suitable replacement.”
Adobe is damned if they do, and damned if they don’t. They’re trying to modernize a 23+ year old architecture, but they’re trying to do it without starting from scratch, breaking compatibility with their entire ecosystem, and requiring tons of retraining among their user base. Basically the exact opposite of what Apple did with FCPX, for better *and* for worse.
I really wish they were moving faster, but I also think this is the sort of thing that’s necessary for the long-term health of an application, and that we users will be better off for it once it’s done.
Flame went through a couple of rebuilding years a little while ago, but now that they’ve modernized their internals, they’re piling on all kinds of cool creative features. DS didn’t go through a couple of rebuilding years when they had the chance, and then sales slowed because development was slow, and then development slowed because sales were slow…
I see your point, but I see it the other way around. If there were a suitable replacement for After Effects, it might well have already been dead in the water, because it was so gosh-darn slow, limited in performance and potential for new creative features by a creaky old architecture. Adobe wouldn’t have even had the chance to try to modernize Ae for the next 20 years. It would have been another DS — a product that started out as this awesome, ahead-of-its-time solution for problems no one even knew they had yet, and then ended a barely-functional relic.
I’m glad they’re taking this risk and doing the right thing, especially without any real competition to force their hand on the poor performance that Ae has suffered the last decade… but yes, I do see the glints of torches and pitchforks at the horizon, too.
Walter Soyka
Designer & Mad Scientist at Keen Live [link]
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
@keenlive | RenderBreak [blog] | Profile [LinkedIn] -
[Walter Soyka] “If you like how it was before better than how it is at the moment, that’s still an option.”
[Jeremy Garchow] “I could always walk everything back to FCP7, too!”
I get the humor, but I meant it as a serious suggestion. Ae is under very active development, but if that’s too bumpy for you, why not hang out on a version that worked well for you for another couple of releases while the re-architecture is still in progress?
I’m currently working in CC 2015 and rendering from CC 2014. We bounce files back and forth between versions all day without issue.
Walter Soyka
Designer & Mad Scientist at Keen Live [link]
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
@keenlive | RenderBreak [blog] | Profile [LinkedIn] -
[Simon Ubsdell] “Would you care to elaborate on where you think Fusion (and/or Nuke) doesn’t stack up in terms of motion graphics? It’s an interesting question – I have seen some outstanding mograph done in both applications. But what are the theoretical and/or practical limits?”
Flow graphs don’t change over time. Timelines do. I think that this vague concept of “length*seamlessness” in a mograph piece favors timelines more as it increases.
Walter Soyka
Designer & Mad Scientist at Keen Live [link]
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
@keenlive | RenderBreak [blog] | Profile [LinkedIn] -
With the latest version of AE 2015 I have only one issue: the sync audio bug… which is mostly workable if irritating. Otherwise, no issues with errors or crashing. I’m already enamored enough with the new caching system that I don’t want to go back to 2014.
I’ve been using AE since 1995, and can’t imagine using anything else despite any growing pains.
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[Walter Soyka] “Flow graphs don’t change over time. Timelines do. I think that this vague concept of “length*seamlessness” in a mograph piece favors timelines more as it increases.”
But it’s not entirely accurate to suggest that Nuke/Fusion don’t have timelines …
Simon Ubsdell
tokyo productions
hawaiki -
[Oliver Peters] “Plus a lot of these start as layered Photoshop files, so there’s a natural integration there with AE. I’m not sure if Fusion preserves PSD layers with layer effects or not.”
Fusion works just fine with layered files – PSD, of course, but just try working with multi-pass renders of EXR! Very flexible and powerful.
[Oliver Peters] “So they are working across several shots, not just clip by clip.”
It’s certainly possible to do with in Fusion – Fusion Connect now supports exactly that. But I take your overall point.
Simon Ubsdell
tokyo productions
hawaiki
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