Motion 4, multi-core rendering and studio intergration

[Ben Pirouet]

Motion is a bit lackluster compared to AE, but you can’t really compare Motion and AE. Yes they do the same job to an extent, but like has been said, i think Motion is more a tool for editors rather than full-on motion graphic designers. I myself am an editor, and i’ve used Motion to create some great graphics. However i am not even slightly interested in becoming a Motion graphic designer. Motion does just enough for me to get by, and i think that’s what Apple want it to be, a tool for editors that can create graphics and do basic compositing for a relatively cheap price without the need for learning too much or having to outsource graphics creation.

There is a lot of talk going around, especially with the latest FCS release, that Apple are abandoning their pro market. I can’t agree. While FCS3 isn’t massively different, it does have some fantastic new features, for me the new ProRes codecs are worth the price of admission alone.

I think what peoples problem is, is that we’ve been very lucky in the last few years because Apple has made some massive breakthroughs and released some fantastic products. I think the reason people are underwhelmed with new releases at the moment is because while new releases and hardware are good releases they don’t match those big breakthroughs of the last few years. It’s not just in the pro market, look at the iMac. The design difference between the beige Macs and the G3 iMac were staggering, the difference between the G3 and the G4 iMac was staggering. The difference between the G4 iMac and G5 iMac was staggering, but the difference between the white iMac and the alu iMac, while nice was not so staggering. The original iPhone release was staggering, the updates not so much. It’s the same with their software too. There hasn’t been a massive new release from Apple in a while, and people are getting underwhelmed. That’s the problem when you’re a company like Apple. People want the next big thing every time you call a press conference. I imagine the rumored ‘netbook’ may be what Apple fanboys will be waiting for.

[Santiago Gutierrez]

Hi Eric,
I have to correct you on this point. Ron Brinkmann hasn’t worked for Apple for several years now. He left to take over as Nuke’s senior developer at the Foundry, and Nuke 5 was the first release that benefited from his expertise. Many VFX studios still use Shake today, but many of the major ones are switching over to Nuke in droves as it has a much more robust 3D system than Shake ever did, along with many other features (major speed improvements with 4k plates and cross platform availability being two others).

“You really are wrong on a lot of things. You say apple didnt know anything about high end compositing? They didnt have to because they hired ROn Brinkman, developer of shake and Nuke. They had the father of compositing IN HOUSE. They didnt need to. Kill support for other platforms? You can still buy shake for Linux and you can buy the SOURCE CODE. So now studios can update, modify and write plugs in on a proprietary bases for the studio. THEY OWN TEH SOURCE CODE. The studios will never leave shake because they can just update the code as they see fit. Add what they see fir etc. Shake isnt going anywhere for awhile.”

Santiago