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I don’t trust Motion
I recently had one of those hideous shutdowns whilst using Motion where everything hangs for a while then the screen goes dark from top to bottom and bang machine shuts down. I don’t like these at all and I can’t say I get them with any other programme, even After Effects just dies and leaves me thankful I save every few seconds.
I am running a brand new MacPro 2 x 2.93 Quad-Core Intel Xeon with 16 Gb of Ram. Mac OSX 10.6.2 The graphics card is ATI Radeon HD 4870, so no expense spared with this machine. I do run 3 monitors. I have 2 x 23 inch aluminium Apple monitors side by side one devoted to email, FB etc + a JVC Broadcast monitor running out of a Blackmagic Intensity card to preview After Effects, Final Cut. When the crash happened the JVC monitor died first, then the machine hung and did it’s horrid shutdown routine. I have read that Motion doesn’t like running with 2 monitors, because it utilises the GPU a lot more than other apps. Could this be a reason for the crash.
But really the point of my post is I rarely touch Motion because of these things happening. I’d really like to but I get seriously put off when this goes down. At least with other apps I like After Effects I have learned to live with the memory lock ups and freezes in Mac OSX, by constantly saving etc. It is the price you pay for working with HD until a 64bit version of After Effects becomes available. But the way this just shut down the machine is just plain spooky, and for all Motions advantages over After Effects, ( I really love working and manipulating in real time) I steer clear of it because of this.
I’d be interested in hearing if other people have experienced this and how they set up Motion to avoid this kind of behaviour
all the best
Richard
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7 Replies
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I bring in a shaman and burn incense. In all seriousness Motion works best with the right graphics card, plenty of RAM, a clean OS and FCS install and a minimum of other stuff installed on the same system.
Noah
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I think Motion runs great. I’ve created these real world Motion projects with out any real problems. I find Motion works better if you keep your projects short. If they are going to be long it helps to break them up in parts. Hope this helps and best of luck.
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It’s nice to know Motion runs great for you guys but that doesn’t really help me in my situation. So with your setups are you running the same amount of screens I am running and are you monitoring to a broadcast monitor whilst working. My first feeling is I am possibly pushing the graphics card by running 2 monitors. Also what graphics card are each of you using and if possible machine specs too.
All the best
Richard
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Driving a broadcast monitor will certainly kill performance – especially if it’s set to update during playback – and running more than one computer monitor splits the VRAM on the card, further impacting playback capability.
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Mark Spencer
Freelance Producer/Editor/Motion Graphics Artist
Apple-certified Master Trainer
Author, Motion 4 from Peachpit Press
https://www.applemotion.net -
Well there’s it in a nutshell. My setup uses too many monitors. However this is a standard setup for FCP and I wouldn’t run After Effects without being able to view my changes on a broadcast monitor. So it kind of confirms my feelings about Motion.
I assume you both use Final Cut. How do you monitor your final output?
All the best
Richard
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Mark is right. When I work with Motion, I always view it on a Broadcast Monitor. As for the computer monitors I have two widescreen 24” monitors and leave Motion in one of the screens. I have my e-mail and other stuff in the other monitor.
Check out my Motion Training DVD
Check out my Motion Tutorials
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You say you’re running 3 monitors. Does this mean that you have 2 gfx cards installed?
Motion has been known to have issues with computers running more than 1 gfx card although there has been some discussion as to whether or not that has been fixed. I don’t use 2 gfx cards, and I only own one monitor, so I don’t have experience with this, but here is a link to an apple support doc that mentions the issue.
https://support.apple.com/kb/TS1828
Andy
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