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Question about FCP Motion

I don't know much about FCP Motion at all actually, but I do know it is a program similar to After Effects. AE is a program I wanted to learn but never really was able to get the exposure to.

I use Final Cut Pro and expect to be getting the Studio 2 Suite. I also do not know how to operate the Motion software, but I intend to learn in the very near future. So what I am trying to do is get as much information as I can about the program. I am an Absolute Beginner to this.

I know there are people who swear by AE, but since I use Final Cut, Motion seems to make the most sense to learn and I am not in a position to purchase both programs. Could someone give me a compare and contrast on the programs? Should I consider learning After Effects as well?

Maybe someone can direct me to a website? I am aware of and will be pouring over DVcreators soon.

-- spinner :cool:
 
i posted this previously on a different thread but here i hope it helps

i used to only be an after effects user, but after i learned motion ive been leaning more towards motion for everything i do now




The best thing about motion is the real time playback.
you can make changes to the effect your using while playing the film and watch the changes occur in real tim

motion is lacking in plugins while after effects has tons of them. i think motion will catch up with the more people buying macs and final cut. so hopefully soon motion will have just as much... but as of now.... not even close

motion is much easier to learn (imo) than after effects... especially since you can just drag and drop everything (effects, behaviors, clips,...everything)

keying (green screen) in after effects is not more difficult.... its just not as good.... so you have to use masks and dual layers along with cropping...... its just much more work to get the same look... it actually really pisses me off.... after effects has a much better keying system

the effects that come with each program are both really mind blowing... but motion just has a many newer, sweet looking replicators and the particle emitter is outstanding....

both programs have a great 3D workspace in which you can add real camera movements and make jaw dropping effects...

both programs you can draw and create your own shapes or whatever you want and color them... then add them to your project

both work great with final cut but with motion you can export your projects directly to the compressor and compress it to any dvd, podcast, mpeg setting you want........ roundtripping, which sends your project from final cut to motion ( to add text, graphics or effects) then send it back to final cut

both work great with final cut... but if you are a final cut user i suggest getting motion 3....
 
Since Motion has fewer plug-ins, I guess my question is does it have ANY plug-ins? Also, so far I am reading about something called FxPlug. Do you know anything about that?

The fact that Motion is easier to learn is a good thing for me as I expect to be teaching myself -- I hope a "For Dummies" manual is forthcoming. I will be checking with the Apple store to see if there will be Motion classes.

As for the Key, do you think I will be able to possibly save the settings for keying? I have yet to make use of any green screen, but I hope to sooner than later.

I read up on the replicators and particle emitter. Do you know where I could take a look at a demo?

I am looking forward to the 2D and 3D effects.

Motion 3 comes with Final Cut Studio 2. I am really looking forward to this stuff!

-- spinner :cool:
 
oh yea its got plenty of plugins just not as many as after effects, but most of the good after effects plugins you have to pay big bucks for... and with future releases of motion updates there will be more

yes you can have presets set up like the chroma keying but with different footage and lighting the settings will react differently but you might just have to tweek the setting a little....

and as far as tutorials go, there are many on youtube... im subscribed to a bunch of users who just make tutorials for fun i guess... but whatever there still available...

apple has free tutorials also

check this out... the use of the 3d space is crazy.. and the floating particles were created from the particle emitter.. i pmed the creator of this video and asked how to make those floating particles and how he got the shapes on the wall to apear... the floating particles were created from the particle emitter and the shapes on the walls are simply keyframed masks

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GEYOE0h7IA&feature=related

this is not my work but it shows the possibilities of motion... and with the way apple has improved motion in the past couple of years im really excited to see what they come up with next...
 
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:eek: .....ooooooh!

:bow: .....pretttyyyy.....

:woohoo:

OMIGOD!!! Thanks guys!! Be warned! as soon as I get this sucker I'll be annoying you plenty!
...of course Knightly is used to that :D

-- spinner :cool:
 
I went to a networking event a couple of days ago where there was a person who used After Effects. One of the things he talked about was called particular I think or particle. Can anyone give me an idea of what this is in a nutshell?


-- spinner :cool:
 
Particular is a piece of software that works as a plug in to AE and generates particles. Basically it will throw a graphic (dot or anything else you tell it to, like a small picture of the mona lisa) in a random direction, with a random velocity and a random spin with random color shifts.

By limiting the range of these items, you can say only throw the stuff to the left within this 45 degree arc from the "Generator" (a single point in the space you're using), that look like little puffs of smoke (which you've generated in Photoshop or something) that color shift from bright red at the origin to yellow, then to gray at the end. They diminish in opacity over their lifespan and drift upward near the end with a negative gravity.

You can now attach this jet of particles to someone's hand and they are throwing semi-realistic flames out of their hands.

This is a perfect example:
http://www.videocopilot.net/tutorials/frosty_breath/
and I did all of this in motion with particle generators:
http://www.yafiunderground.com/Video/official_yafi_card.sm.mov
 
COOL! I wanna do that!

...out of curiosity, how is the "flying glass" effect created. I just saw this in the film Constantine, you know that Keanu Reeves movie. I was wondering how that was done, what program was used, what programs can re-creeate it...


EDIT:
Look here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOQhVu1I0aU
Go in about 3 minutes.


-- spinner :cool:
 
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