Deciding whether to swith to PremierePro CS6

[Eric Santiago]

Sounds like your heading that way anyway since you want to do more Motion Design.
We use AE for that but across different NLE depending on situation or who is finishing.

[Gary Huff]

[Danny Finch] “The system is still rock solid, but I’m headed toward more HD projects and want to do more with motion graphics. Wondering if it makes sense at this point to migrate to Premiere/After Effects. I’ve been reading more and more that it’s a pretty seemless transition.”

Are you planning on working with formats outside of ProRes/DVCPRO HD? At this point, if FCP Studio 5 is working fine for you, and you will primarily be working with HD formats that are compatible, I think I would recommend buying a cheap, used copy of After Effects and calling it a day.

That said, I’ve been a big Premiere/After Effects fan for a while, and CS6 is quite a substantial improvement.

[Danny Finch]

Thanks for the input. Since our budget is still a little tight these days I’m thinking $299 for the jump to FCPX and another $49 for Motion may be more practical in the end.

Which leads me to another question – I don’t see much evidence of production companies using Motion over AE. Has it never quite caught on in the profession?

[Gary Hazen]

[Danny Finch] “Has it never quite caught on in the profession?”

Never had a chance. It’s not cross platform and AE had long secured it’s dominance as the tool of choice for motion graphics long before motion arrived on the market.

[Steve Connor]

[Gary Hazen] “Never had a chance. It’s not cross platform and AE had long secured it’s dominance as the tool of choice for motion graphics long before motion arrived on the market.”

However that doesn’t mean it’s not very good – it is and IMO easier to start working with than AE. No roundtripping with FCPX is a major pain though.

Steve Connor
“The ripple command is just a workaround for not having a magnetic timelinel”
Adrenalin Television

[Paul Jay]

You will need new hardware anyway. Any new iMac or MBP will run both.

[Gary Huff]

[Danny Finch] “Thanks for the input. Since our budget is still a little tight these days I’m thinking $299 for the jump to FCPX and another $49 for Motion may be more practical in the end.”

You’d still probably need new hardware to really be happy with the performance of FCPX though.

[Craig Seeman]

If everything is really in house then what other people use may be less important. Maybe even more so if you’re not hiring freelancers (then what they know is important).
Things like learning curve and ease of use might be more important.
Motion might get you there faster and easier than AE assuming there aren’t AE specific features you need/want.

You also may want to compare Adobe’s subscription model vs FCPX/Motion App Store model. Both have a low cost of entry although Adobe might have a higher long term cost, especially since ending the subscription might mean ending access to project files. You could buy upfront though at a higher cost. How each product is licensed to multiple workstations might be a factor to consider.

As an FCP user you may find that FCPX actually has a steeper learning curve that PPro. On the other hand, for simpler projects such as interview, B-Roll, Motion FX you may find it faster.

[Danny Finch]

All great advice and answers to lots of questions. I work for a national firm and other offices (who do way less complex projects than I do) have been given PC’s/Adobe Production Premium CS5. I’m the lone wolf as the ONLY Mac video editor in a very PC-centric corporate environment. The fact that my Macbook Pro is still running strong after 5 years is proof of why the Mac is the professional standard.

[Walter Soyka]

[Craig Seeman] “You also may want to compare Adobe’s subscription model vs FCPX/Motion App Store model. Both have a low cost of entry although Adobe might have a higher long term cost, especially since ending the subscription might mean ending access to project files. You could buy upfront though at a higher cost. How each product is licensed to multiple workstations might be a factor to consider.”

More specifically, you can subscribe to Adobe’s Creative Cloud service and get all the CS6 desktop apps to run locally on your own computer for $50/mo.

https://www.adobe.com/products/creativecloud.html

Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
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