Which areas does Motion3 excel over After Effects CS4?

For those who use both, which types of activities would you choose Motion over After Effects CS4?
Which features in Motion are the strongest?

Great reading, Mark, thanks for the links.
I'd say:
1. AE rules with lights and shadows. (We figure this is coming eventually in Motion, has to.)
2. AE rules with the concept of nesting sequences.
I'm totally biased toward After Effects but I am slogging through Mark's instructional materials to get my Motion chops up to the point where I can take advantage of everything it has to offer.
If you have FCS, there's no question you need to become absolutely fluent with Motion. If you are planning on making a living in the motion graphics and special effects niches, there's no question you must be fluent with After Effects to be taken seriously. But you will find yourself using every tool at your disposal to satisfy the needs of your clients.
bogiesan

Similar Messages

  • After effects cs4 don't launch

    Hi everyone,
    I have an issue i've never seen before.
    I launch after effects cs4, i have the loading round near the cursor for 2 seconds, then nothing. No splash screen, not even in the application bar.
    Just in the process tab at 72Mo Ram
    Im running the cs4 32bits on 7 64b
    i have 2 xeons E5-2650 proc and a firePro v7900
    CS6 is working but i want CS4.
    if you have an idea...

    i've said all i have i think, let's do it point per point
    What version of After Effects? Include the minor version number (e.g., After Effects CS5.5 with the 10.5.1 update).
         After effects cs4 32bits
    Have you installed the recent updates? (If not, you should. They fix a lot of problems.)
    Yep
    What operating system? This should include specific minor version numbers, like "Mac OSX v10.6.8"---not just "Mac".
    windows 7 64bits
    If you are getting error message(s), what is the full text of the error message(s)?
    No error, just not running
    What were you doing when the problem occurred?
    front of it
    Has this ever worked before?
    Nope - new PC
    What other software are you running?
    adobe creative suite. i've installed CS6 after CS4. Same issue
    Do you have any third-party effects or codecs installed?
    Not for now
    Tell us about your computer hardware. Include CPU type and number of processor cores, amount of RAM installed, GPU, number of disk drives, and how any external drives are connected.
    i have 2 xeons E5-2650 proc and a firePro v7900 32Go Ram. 2 hard drives, one external.
    Do you have any third-party I/O hardware (e.g., AJA, Matrox, Blackmagic, MOTU)?
    Nope
    What is the exact sequence of steps that you are taking?
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  • After Effect cs4 cannot render jpg on network on mac but render locally okay

    After Effect cs4 cannot render jpg on network on mac but render locally okay
    We use intel mac pro as workstation, and our servers are windows 2003 servers.
    After Effect cs4 H264 render  on network without any problem bud jpeg not.
    Thank You
    Ayhan.

    Perhaps you must just enable the Allow Encoding using Legacy CoDecs option in the Quicktime control panel on the network machine or else some of that may not show up. Of course make sure QT is installed correctly in teh first place, as Todd and Rick said. On a server, you may need to set special group policies for that to work, also.
    Mylenium

  • How much does Premiere Pro and After Effects rely on the hard drive it's installed on?

    This may be a really dumb question, but how much does Premiere Pro and After Effects rely on the hard drive it's installed on if all your video files, assets, disk cache, etc are on different drives than the one the program itself is installed on?
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    Being cyber monday I have the opportunity to buy another very fast Sata III SSD to replace my current Sata II SSD C Drive (just OS and programs). Both synthetic and real world benchmarks show a near double in performance. I just want to know if anyone thinks the upgrade is even worth it because for all I know there won't be any increase in performance since no videos, still, cach, etc will be stored on the C Drive.
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    I suppose another alternative would be to not buy anything on the cyber monday deals and just save money for something else.
    Any advice or input would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

    Thanks Alex! I think you are right about not being able to notice the difference between the SSDs. I ended up finding a deal to get about $80 off a great monitor that I've been looking at for a while and decided to pull the trigger on it. I thought about it and realized that there have already been a bunch of times where I want to watch a tutorial on youtube and follow allong in AE or PrePro, but have to keep switching windows. I also frequently want to have my video preview on a separate monitor so I can have a taller timeline window. This monitor will help a lot with that. Thanks again for your help!

  • FAQ: What are the best resources for After Effects CS6?

    Listed are select troubleshooting and "how to" resources for After Effects CS6.
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    I'm having trouble downloading and installing After Effects. What do I do?See troubleshooting documents, post in the Downloading, Installing, Setting Up forum, or contact support. For details, see this blog post or this FAQ.
    What are the system requirements for After Effects CS6?See this article.
    Does After Effects CS6 work with Mac OS X 10.9 (Mavericks)?Yes, update to After Effects CS6 (11.04) for that capability. More info in this blog post.
    How do I prevent After Effects CS6 from crashing when I use Illustrator files?Prevent this issue by turning off the preference Create Layer Markers from Footage XMP Metadata in the Media & Disk Cache preferences category. More info in this blog post.
    I can't open the composition mini-flow chart. What do I do?See the workarounds in the following blog post.
    Is there a 30 day trial available for After Effects CS6?Yes, subscribe to the free version of Creative Cloud, then download After Effects CS6. More info here.
    I'm getting errors related to QuickTime. What do I do?See this blog post for troubleshooting items related to QuickTime.
    What are the GPU related features in After Effects CS6?See this blog post for details.
    Do I need new plug-ins for After Effects CS6?See this blog post for information.
    I'm getting errors after applying the 3D Camera Tracker or Warp Stabilizer to a long clips in After Effects CS6. What do I do?See this blog post for more information.
    After Effects CS6 Tutorials
    How do I get started with After Effects CS6?See this blog post.
    Where can I find tutorials for learning After Effects CS6?
    See this blog post.
    See also this collection of tutorials.
    Issue: What are the top new and changed features in After Effects CS6?See this blog post.
    Issue: How do I optimize After Effects CS6 for best performance?See this article.

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    install it ...
    Go to sun site
    c and download jsp tutorials ...
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    u can find lots of nice books supported by sun on sunwebsite ...
    Now u r equipped ....
    start doing everything (R &D) on server ..
    Join This JSP forum and ask any thing u didnt got ..or learn or get confused..
    I thing once u go through this ..it will do all what u want
    Hope it helps
    Best of Luck :)
    regds & take care

  • Does After Effects CS4 Trial have all of the features?

    I was wondering if there is any difference apart from the 30 day limit, in the Trial version and the Full version of Adobe After Effects CS4? Is there any features that are in the Full version, but not the Trial?
    Thanks

    The After Effects CS4 trial version lacked the third-party plug-ins and several codecs.
    The After Effects CS5.5 and later trial versions do not have this problem.
    Details:
    http://blogs.adobe.com/aftereffects/2011/04/improved-trial-version-for-after-effects-cs5-5 .html

  • After Effects cs4 does not recognise my legal product key

    I changed my hard disk without deactivate After Effects cs4
    Trying to install it again several times received the message "some components did no installed correctly" and prompt me to run in a trial basis
    I made all the updates and still have the same problem
    Any Help ???

    Contact Adobe Customer Support.

  • After Effects CS4 does not run! critical errors were found in setup...

    Hey!
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    I have this problem for weeks, I already looked through a lot of forums, found the problem but never a solution! i don't know what to do? may anybody help me? It is important for me and my job..
    I would be happy for help
    Cristian

    to Mylenium:
    processor: Intel (R) Core (TM)2 Quad CPU Q2800 @ 2,33GHz
    RAM: 4,00 GB
    Windows Vista
    1TB disk space
    graphic card: NVIDIA GeForce 9600 GT
    language german
    there has never been any other software on my pc except of the ordinary flash player and adobe reader! i have the current versions...
    to Peter Sgouros:
    don't know how much to post, but I hope the following will help you to help me...
    PayloadPolicyNode.SetAction: DY->DY for dependency {8167335C-8FEA-4576-8EC2-8AC77EC58F19} Adobe PDF Library Files CS4
    PayloadPolicyNode.SetAction: DY->DY for dependency {395FC443-B34B-4E77-9928-23C147FC83F1} Adobe Type Support CS4
    PayloadPolicyNode.SetAction: DY->DY for dependency {2965A5F0-0326-4479-B140-F5799BD025B7} Photoshop Camera Raw
    PayloadPolicyNode.SetAction: DN->DY for {14A5A29B-D252-4575-B40C-695B8D8B34D5} Adobe Bridge CS4
    PayloadPolicyRefresh: END Calculating new payload policy graph
    updating path to Win32
    WizardControl: loading page "Progress" from C:\Program Files\Common Files\Adobe\Installers\3dcb365ab9e01871fb8c6f27b0ea079\resources\pages\Install\Progress\P rogress.js
    updating path to Win32
    WizardControl: loading page "Register" from C:\Program Files\Common Files\Adobe\Installers\3dcb365ab9e01871fb8c6f27b0ea079\resources\pages\Install\Register\R egister.js
    updating path to Win32
    WizardControl: loading page "Finish" from C:\Program Files\Common Files\Adobe\Installers\3dcb365ab9e01871fb8c6f27b0ea079\resources\pages\Install\Finish\Fin ish.js
    HTML data complete: Welcome
    HTML data complete: Eula
    HTML data complete: Options
    [    4240] Tue Feb 09 17:06:05 2010  WARN
    Localization: missing stringID "locPreparingToInstall" for de_DE in C:\Program Files\Common Files\Adobe\Installers\3dcb365ab9e01871fb8c6f27b0ea079\resources\pages\Install\Options\Op tions.xml
    [    4240] Tue Feb 09 17:06:05 2010 DEBUG
    ProductIcon specified for project. Using icon from C:\Users\CHRIST~1\AppData\Local\Temp\{F706302E-1402-4D8D-8ABB-26B18ECAEFBB}ae_app_icon.pn g
    ProductIcon specified for project. Using icon from C:\Users\CHRIST~1\AppData\Local\Temp\{CBC8AB3C-85F0-4D16-8E01-95E0343EE383}ProductIcon.pn g
    ProductIcon specified for project. Using icon from C:\Users\CHRIST~1\AppData\Local\Temp\{568E0A79-996C-4B04-B613-F06CBE7B320B}ae_app_icon.pn g
    ProductIcon specified for project. Using icon from C:\Users\CHRIST~1\AppData\Local\Temp\{14A5A29B-D252-4575-B40C-695B8D8B34D5}bridge.png
    [    4240] Tue Feb 09 17:06:06 2010 DEBUG
    ProductIcon specified for project. Using icon from C:\Users\CHRIST~1\AppData\Local\Temp\{8AD0C0B9-B397-45FE-89A3-D42F95F6E9EF}ProductIcon.pn g
    ProductIcon specified for project. Using icon from C:\Users\CHRIST~1\AppData\Local\Temp\{0967604F-33E6-4C6B-934B-157C3AB4ED4C}ProductWinIcon .png
    ProductIcon specified for project. Using icon from C:\Users\CHRIST~1\AppData\Local\Temp\{DD829154-9968-43C5-9975-4A2CF9E87869}AMEProductIcon .png
    ProductIcon specified for project. Using icon from C:\Users\CHRIST~1\AppData\Local\Temp\{C4DA9059-2CCF-466E-AECC-C37CCA398349}AMEProductIcon .png
    ProductIcon specified for project. Using icon from C:\Users\CHRIST~1\AppData\Local\Temp\{4D17754B-2C2C-4E95-89D0-AFD9383FBFA5}AMEProductIcon .png
    ProductIcon specified for project. Using icon from C:\Users\CHRIST~1\AppData\Local\Temp\{E8CA713D-38A8-47A0-ACFB-39CA6A59CA1D}AMEProductIcon .png
    ProductIcon specified for project. Using icon from C:\Users\CHRIST~1\AppData\Local\Temp\{6743AE49-4594-4CAE-807C-27682446F498}ProductIcon.pn g
    ProductIcon specified for project. Using icon from C:\Users\CHRIST~1\AppData\Local\Temp\{A80B7019-16DF-42DB-BF83-B6B3452677A1}ProductIcon.pn g
    ProductIcon specified for project. Using icon from C:\Users\CHRIST~1\AppData\Local\Temp\{94C6AEF4-BE0D-431B-B0A5-567E6B89E576}pb_appicon_32p x_win.png
    [    4240] Tue Feb 09 17:06:06 2010 FATAL
    Critical errors were found in setup
    Error:Fehler beim Laden einer DLL
    Please see the Setup log file for details.
    [    4240] Tue Feb 09 17:15:47 2010  INFO
    *=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*
    END - Installer Session

  • After Effects CS4 & Wacom Showstopper bug.

    Hi! For more than one year I've being feeling that my machine was the slowest machine on Earth, so I spent a good deal of money on a new HP Z800 with a Quadro FX 5800 and 24GB of RAM with windows 7 64 and a set of SSD raid that gives me over 700MB per second, after install After Effects CS4 and try it, was awesome, such a good response and super fast, but.... after finish installing all the rest, AE was slow like on my previous 4 years old machine.....   so something was wrong. To make the story short, was the Wacom driver, if I turn it off, all goes back to normal, turn it on and all goes slow, so far I was able to reproduce it on 7 machines, Win XP, Win XP 64, Vista 64, and Win 7 64, the all show the same problem, and all the machines are different. And the problem can be reproduced very easily. I've made a video showing how to reproduce it. This problem render the Wacom with AE as a non viable option for anyone. I've noticed this since about 12 months ago, but never thought is was a hardware / driver problem. Just thought AE was excruciatingly slow.
    Here is the video
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KwzASwrnC0
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    Hello,
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    If I can't get this working I will probably just buy Vegas, even though Vegas is a big old crash monkey. No Wacom problems at all though.
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    Also, anyone notice funny cursor behavior when typing in this forum? It seems to jump around on its own and this doesn't happen to me anywhere else. Could be a residual effect of the Wacom weirdness. This fields don't seem to like 'Shift+Enter' either.
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    Dan

  • After Effects CS4 Performance (BRUTAL)

    Despite the comments on this board (from Adobe themselves) claiming improved After Effects CS4 performance over its predecessor, my experience is the exact opposite. This version seems half baked to me.
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    Systems specs
    8GB Ram
    Q6600
    Hard Drive space 4TB, install drive, 156 GB free
    Vista Business 64
    Nvidia GeForce 8600 GTS (driver 178.13)
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    Fausto,
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  • After Effects CS4 and OMF / AAF

    My project's sound editor who I recently brought on board asked me for an OMF or AAF file from my film (that I'm editing together using After Effects CS4).  I exported the OMF file for a clip that was about 15 seconds and the file was > 1GB!
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    Hello, Scireja.
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  • Adobe After Effects CS4

    Hello guys,
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    ~Yagamifyed2

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  • Adobe After Effects CS4 Crashes After Reinstall

    Hello Adobe Community,
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    Hi Mike,
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    - you said you reinstalled Leopard - did you do a clean install? (ie reformatting your harddrive and starting clean)
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    good luck,
    elaine

  • After effects cs4 won't install with the Adobe Creative Suite 4

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    also if I waited and got after effects cs5 do you think it would actually work, and would i be able to get the student discount again?

    We cannot know. We need exact system info. As a start, you might consider turning off UAC completely and running as admin...
    Mylenium

  • *** Adobe Creative Suite 4 Now Shipping!  After Effects CS4 New Features ***

    Adobe have officially announced the upcoming Creative Suite 4 group of products, including
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    b Live Adobe Photoshop 3D layers import
    Import Adobe® Photoshop® 3D layers into Adobe After Effects® CS4, move them, animate cameras around them, adjust lighting, and composite them with other elements.
    b Searchable timelines and projects and easier nested comp navigation
    Locate any element in a comp or project with the new QuickSearch. Quickly navigate between nested comps with the new Mini-Flowchart.
    b Compositions exported as layered projects
    Export compositions as layered, XFL format projects that can be opened and edited in Adobe Flash® CS4 Professional software. Many After Effects assets such as text and Adobe Illustrator® artwork are preserved as vectors.
    b Integrated workflow for mobile device authoring
    Select devices in Adobe Device Central and automatically set up an After Effects project that targets those devices, with settings that match the targeted devices and the Render Queue setup to output to the proper codecs and resolutions.
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    b Dynamic Link between Adobe Premiere Pro, After Effects, and Soundbooth
    Using Adobe Creative Suite® 4 Production Premium software, now link Adobe Premiere® Pro sequences to an After Effects composition and After Effects comps to Adobe Soundbooth® with Adobe Dynamic Link.
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    Now retain asset metadata while you work in After Effects. Add new project-, comp-, and layer-level metadata to streamline project tracking, and automate asset auditing and many other tasks.
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    Adobe is offering some discounted upgrade incentive pricing for a limited time and/or pre-ordering. Some initial U.S. prices are as follows:
    i Product___________________CS3 to CS4 Upgrade_______CS4 Full Purchase
    After Effects CS3____________$299__________________$999
    Production Premium CS3_______$599__________________$1699
    Master Collection CS3_________$899__________________$2499
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    There's a list of the big new features in the
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    Now, on to the specific responses...
    David Wigforss:
    > I completely agree that the graph editor needs work....
    > Position values need to be seperated into 3 distinct values that can
    > be adjusted independant of each other.
    Done.
    See
    "Separate dimensions of Position to animate components individually".
    Mark Weiss:
    > would like to see XDCam EX import capabilities.
    Done.
    See
    "Supported import formats".
    AndyClarke:
    > all effects in 32 bit or float
    Not quite all. But more are, including all of the 3D Channel effects, which is a category that really needed the upgrade.
    See
    "Effects and animation presets".
    AndyClarke
    > prob a really simple little thing but a 'centre anchor point' button could be handy?
    Move layers so that their anchor points are in the center of the composition or view?
    If so, then done. See the first tip on the
    "Move layers in space" page.
    silversurfer:
    > An intra-project search function that displays properties of every layer.
    Done.
    See
    "Search and filter in the Timeline, Project, and Effects & Presets panels".
    (Plus, you can now use the shortcut FF to show instances of missing effects. See
    "About effects".)
    Thomas Craul:
    > the possibility to expand all of the effects parameters in the effect controls window at once.
    > just like when expanding all layer properties or all subfolders with strg+klick (little arrow).
    Done.
    See
    "Shortcuts: showing properties in the Effect Controls panel".
    Pietje Bel:
    > I'd like to see some features I can use with my tablet (I got it for photoshop, though
    > I use AE even more than I use photoshop).
    We've had features for using the pen dynamics with the paint tools for a while. See
    "Brushes and the Brushes panel".
    That said, we've made some improvements under the hood that should make using a pen better (e.g., modifying the sensitivity during certain click and drag operations).
    Darren McNeill:
    > Simple, I would like After Effects to have the ability to extrude Text in 3d space.
    > Nothing complicated, just be able to create 3d Text.
    How about the ability to do this in Photoshop and then import the 3D object layer into After Effects?
    See
    "Using 3D object layers from Photoshop"
    invisiblerabbit:
    > Being able to specify how many processors to use in the multiprocessing preference pane.
    Done. Plus other improvements in this area.
    See
    "Memory & Multiprocessing preferences".
    invisiblerabbit:
    > I'd love a setting either in the preferences or the output module to write project
    > information (importantly: the name of the project) into the metadata of the rendered file.
    Done. And then some. On steroids.
    See
    "XMP metadata in After Effects".
    Navarro Parker:
    > I'd love AE projects to be searchable. Having the ability to search for comp names or source footage
    > names within projects from the Finder would be fantastic.
    Done, as long as you have the means to search within XML files. The new XML project file format opens up a lot of scripting possibilities, too.
    See
    "About projects".
    David Bogie:
    > I humbly ask the Adobe After Effects team to concentrate first on fixing anything
    > and everything that is broken or buggy before adding any more complexity to this application.
    > Make it more elgant, make it easier to use, make it faster... sure, fine. But invest the
    > creative energy and geek resources to making it work flawlessly instead of adding more stuff.
    Though we did add "more stuff", we also spent a lot of time polishing the application this time. The number of small tweaks to address pain points was very large.
    AndyClarke:
    > I just don't like the help browser.
    Better?
    After Effects CS4 Help on the Web
    Laurie Hogan:
    > I got a simple one. Can AE have Spell Check.
    AE Enhancers provides
    a spelling checker script.
    Laurie Hogan:
    > Also Can there be more integration between AE and Apple FCP.
    I give a link to a script from Dale Bradshaw on the
    "Supported import formats" page (at the bottom of the page).

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