[Walter Soyka]

[Tony West] “I could do anything that came to mind with it and I really hadn’t trained on it at all. I found it simple to use and It allowed me to do more than simple cutting in the timeline.”

I agree with you, Tony. I had some After Effects experience, but it was Motion and its immediacy (back in the v1-3 days) that really put me on the path to motion design.

I always viewed Motion as a kind of a sketchpad — a great place to play, almost. A place to experiment, see what you can do, and iterate really, really quickly. But it’s an imperfect analogy, because unlike my sketchbook, Motion’s output is suitable for public consumption.

I also think that Apple has done a great job of making Motion discoverable. As a new user, you can ease yourself into it — before you get into the layering complexity that Dirk and Simon are talking about. Adobe is making some efforts here in Ae with some content and new features, but the core of Ae still presents a significant learning curve.

Walter Soyka
Designer & Mad Scientist at Keen Live [link]
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
@keenlive   |   RenderBreak [blog]   |   Profile [LinkedIn]

[Walter Soyka]

[Robin S. Kurz] “Mind you, I explicitly asked about exchanging files with clients, not co-workers/partners! Those are obviously two entirely different things. So when’s the last time you had to exchange actual project files with a client? Just as I don’t send original, editable text documents to clients, but rather printouts, PDFs, whatever, I don’t know why I would want to send original project files to a client. If they have the app and can work it (why else would they need them??), then what am I working for them for? ?”

We are asked for project files about 50% of the time, and we ourselves require projects files from any subcontractors 100% of the time. End clients almost never actually use the files, but if you’re going to invest significant money in their creation, why on earth wouldn’t you want them?

We sometimes even send project files to competitors, because agency work is highly collaborative. Everything in a campaign has to work together.

[Robin S. Kurz] “I took those 50+ assets for both maps and made one Motion title from them with merely three pop-up menus for each region to choose the condition from, and one for which map. That being the first thing that is a complete impossibility in AE, btw.”

Maybe it’s been a while since you’ve used Ae, but this is not impossible anymore. Ae/Pr added support for dropdown lists sometime last year. Also, Ae has native support for CSV and JSON data, so this workflow could be 100% automated in an Adobe workflow — with no data re-entry required by the editor.

Basic comps can play in real-time now, too. Motion still has a massive performance advantage, but truly simple comps do just play.

Walter Soyka
Designer & Mad Scientist at Keen Live [link]
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
@keenlive   |   RenderBreak [blog]   |   Profile [LinkedIn]

[Walter Soyka]

It’s still mostly CPU. The GPU accelerates a lot more than it did a few years ago, but it doesn’t need to be a super-big GPU to get the job done.

Plenty of great insight on Ae’s hardware use here:
https://www.pugetsystems.com/recommended/Recommended-Systems-for-Adobe-After-Effects-144/Hardware-Recommendations

Walter Soyka
Designer & Mad Scientist at Keen Live [link]
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
@keenlive   |   RenderBreak [blog]   |   Profile [LinkedIn]

[Walter Soyka]

[Shawn Miller] “Do you have a favorite among those programs for live event graphics?”

Notch for media server integration, Smode for Ae/C4D familiarity, and Ventuz for data-driven/procedural/broadcast graphics.

I think that Unreal is eventually going to eat up most of the real-time market, though. There’s just so much cash behind it, why try to compete as a renderer? There will continue to be a market for specialized UIs and controllers, but I expect most first-party real-time renderers will ultimately be rendered obsolete.

Walter Soyka
Designer & Mad Scientist at Keen Live [link]
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
@keenlive   |   RenderBreak [blog]   |   Profile [LinkedIn]

[Walter Soyka]

[Jason Watson] “I’ve heard more about Cavalry than I have about Motion.”

I love Cavalry’s approach (and the name is very fitting for this thread), but I haven’t actually seen that in the wild yet, either…

Walter Soyka
Designer & Mad Scientist at Keen Live [link]
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
@keenlive   |   RenderBreak [blog]   |   Profile [LinkedIn]

[Walter Soyka]

[Shawn Miller] “So, what would inspire you to pick Motion up again? Does it need a complete overhaul in your opinion, or is it just missing a few very important features/capabilities?”

That’s a great question. At this point, the only thing I’d use Motion for an FCPX-native graphics package. As a standalone application, the few important capabilities I’d really want — multiple comps per project and scripting — would probably constitute a complete overhaul.

Workflow isn’t everything; it’s the only thing. Ae is slow, but it’s so flexible. It doesn’t matter that it’s not state-of-the-art because it can do so much for us.

But as far as real-time graphics go, Motion isn’t exactly state-of-the-art either. Why use Motion when I can have Notch, Smode, Unreal, or Ventuz?

Walter Soyka
Designer & Mad Scientist at Keen Live [link]
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
@keenlive   |   RenderBreak [blog]   |   Profile [LinkedIn]

[Walter Soyka]

[Simon Ubsdell] “Don’t you start! Otherwise I might have to make a reappearance …”

Ooh, are we treading trodden trails?

Two updates from the year 2020:

Ae’s MOGRTs have grown up a lot and cover most of my titling needs, but there is still no equivalent to Motion footage dropzones or effects. I miss them sometimes, but it’s been a couple years since I’ve even opened Motion.

I have still not personally seen a Fusion motion graphic in the wild. Has anyone else?

Walter Soyka
Designer & Mad Scientist at Keen Live [link]
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
@keenlive   |   RenderBreak [blog]   |   Profile [LinkedIn]

[Walter Soyka]

Not that I can think of with one hotkey, but you could certainly copy then paste with two.

Do I misunderstand the problem you’re facing?

Walter Soyka
Designer & Mad Scientist at Keen Live [link]
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
@keenlive   |   RenderBreak [blog]   |   Profile [LinkedIn]

[Walter Soyka]

You can use File > Import to pull one AEP into another — all comps and all assets. You might want to reduce the project you plan to import first.

Walter Soyka
Designer & Mad Scientist at Keen Live [link]
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
@keenlive   |   RenderBreak [blog]   |   Profile [LinkedIn]

[Walter Soyka]

The expression editor is now scalable; if you hold Ctrl or Cmd while scrolling the mouse wheel, the text entry field will zoom in and out. Does adjusting the zoom level like that help?

Walter Soyka
Designer & Mad Scientist at Keen Live [link]
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
@keenlive   |   RenderBreak [blog]   |   Profile [LinkedIn]