Enlighten me on why Motion is better than After Effects or not

[Andrew Kimery]

In my neck of the woods I see a lot of editing gigs where you are expected to know AE. I can’t remember seeing one where you were expected to know Motion. That’s a big reason why AE is better than Motion for me. 😉

[Shawn Miller]

I can’t speak to Motion’s strengths or weaknesses. But here’s why I think AE rules the roost as a hybrid motion graphics/VFX/finishing tool.

[Marco Feil]

I do mostly motion graphics and very few vfx and I think you can do most things in both apps. Motion may look a bit simple on first look but once you dig a little you’ll discover it’s really powerful. And it’s so much faster to work with. Most of my projects run in realtime or near realtime without rendering – you get instant feedback adjusting things.. And if there’s a missing feature most of the time theres a plugin for it..

The Integration of Motion titles, generators and effects with Final Cut X is really great, I use it all the time. I prepare a lot of titles and effects for other editors so they can adjust colors, text, blendmodes and more on the fly. AE/Premiere Dynamic link is much less flexible and renders awfully slow compared to Motion/FCPX.

The only things in AE I sometimes miss are the Warp Stabilizer and Puppet Tool. For Planar or 3D Tracking and 3D Animation I use other Apps. I don’t do scripting, so the behaviors in Motion fit my needs.

Though I do worry sometimes because there wasn’t a really big update since the facelift 4->5. I hope there’ll be a Motion X with a big feature upgrade in the foreseeable future.

[Mark Suszko]

I don’t think it’s a question of either-or. Both have their charms. I took a class on AE after first learning Motion and I have to say Motion, to me, is way more intuitive to learn and use, from a beginner’s standpoint. If you understand Photoshop, you understand Motion. AE has more firepower, without a doubt. However, not every gig you do NEEDS a lot of “firepower”. For the more average daily tasks like building an animated graphic, I think both apps do about as well. But Motion to me seems easier, cleaner, simpler to understand on sight. With the addition of plug-ins for 3d CGI, Motion can do much pf what AE does with Cinema4D.
Where each app shines is in integration with their respective associated NLE. So if you’re an FCPX person, Motion seems a more natural first “go-to” than using AE, and if you’re a Premiere driver, then AE is what you’d tend to want to use for things premiere isn’t as good at.

I just can’t get too stirred-up about it: either way you choose, you still win. It’s more about personal preference and how you look at the job, than asking if the tools are up to the job.

[Herb Sevush]

[Mark Suszko] “AE has more firepower, without a doubt. However, not every gig you do NEEDS a lot of “firepower”. For the more average daily tasks like building an animated graphic, I think both apps do about as well. But Motion to me seems easier, cleaner, simpler to understand on sight.”

To me Motion is an “editors” tool and AE is an “EFX/Compositors” tool. Having switched to CC I very much miss the ease of Motion, I much prefer groups to pre-copming and I sorely miss the ease of throwing some fades onto a clip without resorting to key framing, however the inability to “send to Motion” from within X is another nail in that coffin for me.

Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions
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nothin’ attached to nothin’
“Deciding the spine is the process of editing” F. Bieberkopf

[David Mathis]

The lack of Send To Motion is a major bummer, dude. I prefer expressions over behaviors, though. The only thing that keeps me from using After Effects is that darn rental only model. Keeping an eye on Fusion, no pun intended.

[Kevin Rag]

[Herb Sevush] “To me Motion is an “editors” tool and AE is an “EFX/Compositors” tool”
True. Motion was designed by an editor. I find it much easier to use Motion than AE. I’m in and out of Motion faster, resulting in me using the software a lot more:) AE is very powerful as everyone knows, just not for me.

Kannan Raghavan
The Big Toad Films Pte. Ltd.

[Shawn Miller]

[David Mathis] “The lack of Send To Motion is a major bummer, dude. I prefer expressions over behaviors, though. The only thing that keeps me from using After Effects is that darn rental only model. Keeping an eye on Fusion, no pun intended.”

David, I know you’re a Blackmagic camera user as well. Does Motion debayer raw formats? If so, how is the performance with CinemaDNG, if not, how does Motion fit into your raw workflow?

Shawn

[David Mathis]

I honestly don’t know, hoping someone else has the answer. Resolve is used to render individual clips in ProRes codec along with XML for use in X. Typically use a Rec709 LUT in the workflow. Then back to Resolve for color grading, then back to X for finishing. Now that Red Giant Universe is supported in Resolve, it will be used for finishing. I realize that answer is a bit off track and as far as I know Motion does not handle raw files in their native format. Could be wrong.

As far as the workflow described above, Denver Riddle has a video tutorial on Color Grading Central, a very easy task. Hope this answer is useful. Plan to get some test footage with a Rokinin lens that was recently purchased.

[Shawn Miller]

Ah, I see. I was curious to know if you could work with a raw format inside Motion. I have a similar workflow to yours with Resolve>XML>Premiere/Ae>XML> Resolve. Although, sometimes it’s Cineform>Premiere/Ae, or just straight to AE… depending on what it is, and how fast I need to get it out.

Shawn