Motion 3

[Stephen Smith]

[ mirela bogdan] The kind of effects I had in mind are things like making inanimate objects move, add in things to the frame that weren’t there before etc…

It depends on the inanimate object, Motion 3 is not a 3D program where you generate 3D people and stuff. Motion has great Motion tracking and masking tools that make it so you can add things that weren’t there before. Hope this helps.

Salt Lake Video

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[Mirela Bogdan]

Thanks Stephen, yes this helps a little. Does Motion 3 allow you to move these added people or objects or do they remain still?

[Stephen Smith]

Yes, you can add objects or people and move them. And I think it does a great job. I created this Motion tutorial on Creating Customized Motion Templates and the open shows a bunch of objects that I interact with. Hope this helps.

Salt Lake Video

Check out my DVD Money Making Graphics & Effects for Final Cut Studio 2

[Jeff Asher]

You may want to look into After Effects. It sounds like you’d get a lot of use out of the Puppet Tool: https://www.keyframer.com/index.php/2007/06/after-effects-cs3-puppet-tool/

Also, if you want Motion 3 you have to buy the whole Final Cut Studio. That isn’t a bad investment but make sure you know exactly what you are getting into.

Finally how old is your iMac? Motion 3 is very unkind to older video cards so be sure to compare your card to the minimum system requirements for Motion 3.

You can do the things you ask in both After Effects and Motion but for those specific needs you may find After Effects the best bet, although a bit harder to learn initially.

Be sure to Google comparisons between the programs as well to find other differences.