Is Apple Motion obsolete?
Вставка
- Опубліковано 5 лют 2025
- What is the future of Apple Motion? Is it already obsolete? Let's take a closer look.
Let me know your own thoughts in the comments. But do watch the video before deciding that you know what my answer is and flaming me because you don't like it.
Just to be very clear, my answer is that Motion both is and is not 'obsolete'.
I do a follow-up video here: • Overcoming Anxiety?
I keep using Motion because of you... You've shown so many different ways to get around its limitations that now I find it irresistible to test if I can get the job done with its simpler tools before going to the complex stuff. Thank you!
That's really good to hear because that's always been my reason for doing them: to show that you can do some pretty complex and interesting stuff despite the apparent limitations and that overcoming the limitations is a) really good training, and b) a lot of fun.
Yes! I've been saying for a long time that while AE and Fusion have higher peaks, most people will never want or need to go to those summits.
In the meantime, Motion will let you ascend close to those peaks with much less effort.
(Inserts usual metaphor for this..) Word. Yep, MS Word. Everybody thinks they need it. It does LOADS of stuff. But 90% of people who use it, probably only need 10% of what it does. Some of what it does is clunky, and not very useable. But i guess it's the standard so I gotta have it?
Motion is great if you need to create a template to be used in FCP and basic VFX-ish things, that's where it shines. It saved me countless hours when editing a series of videos by simply allowing me to create customized items to be used.
For me it's a tool to be used to enhance FCP. If I need to do more complicated things, then I use Fusion, Nuke or (if I have to) After Effects; I prefer nodes to layers.
I really enjoy your tutorials, btw. Thank you!
no way! its too easy to get cool stuff fast w motion!
Did anyone else just watch the Motion logo for the full 6+ minutes? I don't think I've ever been so focused on one spinning object for so long!
Simon, Thank you for the time you take to come out with all this great videos for final cut pro/apple motion
Thanks Simon! The workflow is so much faster also! That ease of use is huge!
I wouldn't say that motion is obsolete, it doesn't evolve a lot, we can see that it's not Apple's priority. What I find annoying is that the community doesn't seem to be big, it's difficult to find tutorials compared to after effects.
Good thing you offer some, Dylan Bates, Jenn Jager and a few others. When we type motion tutorials on UA-cam I often come across old stuff that isn't interesting or people who make demos of templates for sale that are mostly beautiful.
Even the paid tutorials that I have seen are not interesting, I don't even want to pay for them, especially given the sometimes excessive price. Even capcut looks attractive because it takes into account a more modern user experience.
I like motion and I'm going to stay on it to progress and also because it only pays once, I'm fed up with subscriptions.
I don't know if I'm seeing it right or not, but that's the impression I have.
I just retired from being a motion graphics designer for live events. It’s been a long road of frustration wishing Apple did more with Motion. I much prefer Motion’s method for grouping and layering items vs AE precomps. And being able to use one object mask on as many layers as I want is way better. At the end of my career, I used AE more and more but for many tasks I had to do quickly on show site, Motion was my go-to tool.
I would completely agree with all of that. Adn yes, Motion groups are so much more flexible to use than After Effects precomps, as I discuss in this video: ua-cam.com/video/bIpXpwGW_nk/v-deo.html
Motion is easy, very easy to work with, but the most important thing is time, we can do more in less time, that’s the reason i use motion, and you Simon, you make it very spécial , your tutos are so powerfull and Stunning 😘👏👏👏
Thanks for the video Simon! I agree, I think Motion has been a great tool for understanding how motion graphics work and understanding how to set parameters to achieve ones goal.
Very well put. Motion is still a very powerful piece of software, it might not be at the bleeding edge of what other packages are capable of, but it gives people the tools that 90% of content creators need in a very accessible package without drowning it in confusing and convoluted features and workflows, features that you would probably very rarely, if ever, touch anyway. Also loved the subtle callout to Jenn Jager at the end, I have found her channel a wonderful resource for learning Motion, just like yours.
Simon, you have driven my love for Motion with your tutorials!
I appreciate your dedication to educate in your videos. Thank you. :)
I have just purchased Motion and look forward to all the new tools to support my Final Cut Pro.
i've been using adobe after effects over 5 years and i switched to apple motion a month ago
i love how motion is well optimized and things are intuitive, well organized compared to after effects
the only downside was a lack of ai based rotoscoping tool like roto brush on AE
hope they add it on upcoming ai feature announcement
I started video editing during the pandemic. I went straight to Davinci because I (not a fan of layers) really enjoy learning about Davinci. then I came across photos on Pixelmator that can then be used in motion. As an amateur, it is not an option for me to pay monthly subscriptions. I have learned a lot by combining these 3 (of course not forgetting your tutorials) FCP hmm.... never worked with it before, maybe something to test out. thx 4 the vid.
Very well said. Quick projects are often made on my mac. 3D stuff though i tend to use my PC. So many options. And they are more than welcome. Thank you for your video.
Would love to hear Tim Cook’s AI keynote to include adding AI to Motion to better automate tasks like rotoscoping and tracking. Or ask Siri to make an object fall with a natural small bounce and it just happens.
If it's not on the phone or the iPad or the embarrassing headset thing, it's of no interest to Apple. They only keep Motion because of FCP, and they only keep FCP because it is mildly useful in promoting the consumer gadgetry. There is so much that they could do ... that they will never do. But yes, I would love it if they totally surprised us.
wow. concise, clear-headed and to the point. thanks simon. new subscriber now!
if only others could follow your example and waste less of our time.
Thank you!
Hi Simon, I really enjoyed hearing your thoughts on apple motion. I personally liked Apple motion when I began video editing 14 years ago, but recently I’ve been relying mostly on plug-ins these days for my special effects.
I’ve learned that talent and skill can outweigh tools
My view is apple motion is not obsolete because apple still creates updates for the application. It's Final Cut pro's lesser known side kick. Motion could use some built in guides since it's not beginner friendly. Im only able to enjoy apple motion because of you Simon. Thank you for sharing your wisdom.
I mainly use Motion to create titles for FCP. Each one is ordered by show. The fact that I can create concise menus is, in my opinion, a real advantage. It avoids the risk of errors such as bad typography, colours, etc... Of course, since Motion 2 (with the .mov extension...), I've also been able to use it for generics (which are very different from the tutorials presented here). I don't think this is due to the limitations of the software ! Ok, a roto would be a plus, for my part apart from the double representation of layers which wastes a bit of space it's above all the association of data to create graphics that would be a plus. Thanks for these excellent tutorials. Sorry for this translation.
I agree with the majority you said. However, amongst the bleakness of fellow FCP creators, I'm rather optimistic for the future of the FCP ecosystem. Apple is in a unique position for vertical integration. And they will be doing it. But we in the FCP bubble need to understand that features like speech-to-text won't be developed by ProApps engineers. This is a task for Siri or AI engineers. Once features like that are integrated into the core of Apple's software, they will appear in FCP and Motion. With the advancements in AI and what Apple will probably release this year, it's looking as promising as never before for FCP. Especially since Apple quite literally doubled down on FCP, as they said at the creative summit in 2023.
Thank you for your videos, Simon!
Was I bleak about FCP? I certainly didn't mean to be. But as to the future, I have long since abandoned trying to guess what Apple are planning for Pro Apps. Mostly because my inside experience of it (such as it is) is that there isn't anything approaching actual planning going on at all. Which means that a) anything at all could happen, and b) nothing at all might. The one thing I think it's entirely safe to say is that Pro Apps is not the primary focus of Apple as a business, much as we would all love it to be. Essentially it's not even a rounding error in terms of the bottom line. But I hope that doesn't sound negative and dismissive. I applaud your optimism and I hope it bears fruit.
@@SimonUbsdell No, you weren't! Didn't mean that. :D You are correct in your thoughts, in my opinion, though I still think people at Apple are mission-driven. At least, that's my hope. :)
Thank you for the thoughtful presentation.
I tend to feel that if Motion is not enough, the next step is Unreal Engine, Blender and Stable Diffusion. Ultimately, ,the vocabulary of television isn't genuinely changing, and most content creators can up their game fastest by creating better storyboards, shooting multiple camera angles and using more adventurous settings. If we look at the difference between what UA-cam creators do and what TV companies do, and between what TV companies do and Hollywood films do, the vast amount of the extra money goes on things that happen through the camera. Sure, the bigger the budget the more there is for effects, but this isn't the big differentiator.
I still love Motion and use it all the time you can produce great graphics and send direct to FCP
I have been using it since it first came out can’t remember when that was early 2000 or so
It first came out in 2004 and at the time it was totally ground-breaking: it was amazing to think that it could be so fast. And in some ways it still is amazing ...
For me, it's the easiest and most malleable 3D text editing software that, even with its elementary functions and techniques, produces fantastic quality.
In this video, Simon, you speak to relinquishing the need for using the "best" or "most popular" software and, instead, choosing that which helps one achieve the result needed with the least amount of headaches and time. Boom. That's it. Couldn't agree with you more. I have, and can still go into After Effects and get the same result as I can with text editing - 3D extrusion, motion and movement, write on/transition animations - but the time it takes to do the work in Motion is so much less than in AE that I can't rationalize using it even to learn and try to replace Motion.
My workflow is to create and edit text in Motion and then import what I've created into After Effects or Premiere, so there are some order-of-operations moments where I may need to think ahead to what the final product will be and "predict" animations or movements. With that pathway in mind, I have ran into a handful of walls where, if I had done the text edits in Adobe software, the road would momentarily be smoother, but those moments are outweighed to a ridiculous degree by the ease and speed in Motion.
That makes total sense to me. Why not use what's best about the tools we have at our disposal? Why does it always have to be a competition?
Thank you. Very well stated. Personally, I believe that Apple will continue with Motion (and FCPX) as long there is demand and most importantly, supports their business model.
Brilliantly put as always!
Thank you.
i personally think its worth purchasing apple motion for the simon ubsdell tutorials alone
he is a calm and considered voice in a very noisy playing field
Thank you!
Apple Motion is like a quantum: it is obsolete (ugly 3D objects, primitive masks, fake 3D etc) and it is not obsolete (fast and optimised workflow, FCPX 1 click integration etc) at the same time. Being in superposition 😄
Wish you made some tricks and techniques in Motion, as you do. Thanks, Simon 🤝
The video is obsolete with the release for FC 11. While Motion’s update was not a full version jump, its integration with FC 11 keeps well on a positive path.
I take it you only read the title of the video and didn't watch it (no reason why you should of course) because in reality my point was not at all what you seem to think it was and what I say remains true regardless of what one takes away from the recent pro apps updates.
What do you think of Motion as a supplementary tool to Fusion's less optimal workflow for motion graphics (compared to After Effects)?
It's a good question and I would essentially agree. One can certainly do motion graphics in Fusion (and many people have done amazing work) but it is definitely the case that Motion has advantages in being an application primarily designed for mograph, with a much more extensive, flexible and adaptable toolset for that purpose. The other huge advantage is the realtime performance (way better than After Effects has ever/will ever (?) manage) which to my mind is a crucial thing for fast, effective iteration - which is very much key to doing good mograph work.
Apple Motion is so easy to use! I make titles, openings & credits instead of Davinci Fusion as I can do it in a flash! However, it will be good to have an update to compete with After Effects. I don’t edit with FCPro but Davinci. But Apple Motion is always at hand!
Oh wow. Did you create that logo fully in Motion5? Could you kindly show us how in a tutorial?
No, I made the model in Blender (with the three different materials), exported it as USDZ, and then composited the result in Motion, which is a workflow I really like because of how quick and easy it is.
Bonjour je n'ai pas tout écouté mais dans ce que j'ai pu écouter et surtout lire car je ne suis pas anglophone, je vous rejoins. After Effect étant plus dynamique et surtout plus complet, il nous permet de faire d'avantage de choses et donne envie de faire davantage. J'aime beaucoup FCPX sauf pour la gestion des fond vert mais dans l'ensemble il est pas mal.
Pour les fonds verts (même pour After Effects) il n'y a rien de meilleur que Hawaiki Keyer, le choix vraiment pro: hawaiki.co
3:11 you say that AE and Davinci have had more updates than Motion.. Motion was first to have true 3D text, Motion was first to have USDZ 3D objects, it has a particle system that rivals Maxons trapcode and not to mention other plugins that you would have to purchase inside of AE just to match what Motion already has... Davinci has made updates to the Resolve part of the software but nothing has been added to Fusion which is the equivalent of Motion and AE...
The whole point of my video was that it's not a competition. Do we really have to make it a competition? Is that actually helpful to anybody? But I'm guessing you didn't have the patience to watch till the end and get the full picture.
Yes but all those things happened at the beginning. Then Apple stopping being interested. MotionVFX jumped in and made plugins for a few new features but now the only mention of Motion is their name. Very frustrating
Maybe After Effects has more capabilities, but only about 5% of users will actually use them, and on top of that, the system requirements for Premiere and After Effects are absurdly high.
I often wonder if Apple uses Motion/FC in their own production of Apple Originals on the TV app.
My understanding is that Apple's creative teams never use Motion or indeed Final Cut for their own marketing projects.
Motion for ipad?
Merhaba Simon. Motion ile emlak arazisinin etrafını (ae mocha efect) hoş efectlerle belirleyebilir miyim? Mümkün mü? Yardımın için teşekkürler.
Hello Simon. Can I create nice effects around the property (ae mocha effect) with Motion? Is it possible? Thank you for your help.
I think Motion has a great UI and if you have the muscle memory you can do amazing things in no time. If I had to do something in 2D like a HUD then I'd prefer Motion. But Fusion, Blender, Unreal all have their advantages and disadvantages where it helps to know when to use a particular tool. The tricky thing is where do you invest the time to build as much muscle memory as possible and where do you just respect their limitations. I'm happy that Motion exits, is fairly priced without a subscription, and many of the skills you learn in Motion can help learn another tool. What I find unforgivable from Apple is that Motion or a Motion like tool from Apple doesn't exist for the iPad. This makes no sense and is a whole other reason why the moniker iPad Pro felt wrong when there weren't even Apple's own professional tools available for this device.
Agreed.
Does Apple really use it to sell Apple hardware? It seems their marketing has moved to Adobe and Resolve and apparently even CapCut. Again this is as far as marketing hardware is concerned. I love FCP and certainly appreciate Motion as a plugin creation tool for FCP but I'm honestly not sure where FCP sits in Apple's marketing anymore. This isn't even about features but straight marketing. Apple doesn't really market ProApps outside of Logic.
The whole question of the future of FCP is another kettle of fish entirely and I didn't want to get too deep into that here. If I had started on that conversation I would have made the point that the hardware that Apple now want to push with FCP is not the desktop but the iPad and I predict that such new features as we will see will be essentially geared to the creators who are using that platform. It is a very different world now.
@@SimonUbsdell Although Resolve, LumaFusion, CapCut also exist on iPad. Motion though is Desktop only. The issue I have is the lack of Marketing by Apple. FCP and Motion may have a long life but with protracted invisibility outside of its current user base.
Have you used CapCut? FCP feels like stone-age software in comparison
A big Yes!
If we're gonna use the word obsolete in the more playful sense, then it might be questioned whether Final Cut Pro itself be obsolete, given the incredible amount of new features that the Premiere users have been getting recently.
Indeed. There is a whole other discussion to be had about exactly where FCP is going ... and not going.
I fell out of love with apple when they canned shake and kept promising they were about to release its replacement and never did. Shame I love shake.
Shake was acquired by Steve Jobs back when Apple had very different ambitions in the post-production sphere. But it wasn't long before they decided that the long haul of incremental product development for this industry was not something they had an interest in committing to. And yes, it was a total delight to use and every VFX artist mourned its passing.
You are correct.
Apple as a company isn’t pushing Motion. There are only a handful of full of influencers on UA-cam. I like Motion it’s much easier than After Effects and you can produce some stunning effects, you being an clear example
Motion is a powerful application.
I wouldn't be surprised, because Apple rudely canceled the more than excellent photo processing program APERTURE. We buy MACs for photography, video, music, design. Even the Pages were ostracized years ago.
The difference with Motion, unlike the other apps that Apple has summarily killed, is that it is tied to FCP ... and for now FCP is actually important to them for a variety of reasons. But it is not *very* important to them, so we have to factor that into the equation.
That's right Simon!
I wish Apple would update Motion to be on the same level as AE. I have to use AE at work and it is insanely slow. It's so slow that I feel I can't realise my full creative potential because I can't see things happen quickly enough. It's not the computer either because it is a very high end machine and all my other apps are blazing fast. I don't think the user interface is the best in AE either, it's extremely fiddly and cluttered, in fact it's my least favourite interface of all the apps I use. It would be a dream for me to have all the capability of AE but with the Apple treatment, come on Apple!
Yes, After Effects is still frustratingly slow for anyone accustomed to the speed of Motion. See my video here that explores the difference: ua-cam.com/video/VXa3iXgkF8g/v-deo.html
I believe apple motion got the same fate as Combustion. Ironically when combustion was ended , apple hired the team to build motion. They had offices in the same building as far as I remember.
I was a combustion user for so long until I moved to nuke/afx.
Such a waste of time and effort.
Combustion was great. I really enjoyed it, as I have enjoyed so many other applications that have died a sudden, undeserved death. I'm good at picking the, it would seem ...
After many years with FCP and Motion, for me CapCut has replaced them both. Apple needs to catch up fast or be left behind.
Bro, there are just too many things you're NOT able to do in motion... simple things. The reason people here are satisfied and think that AE is an unnecessary thing is because they didn't start somewhere else and they don't know what they don't know. They don't see how Motion steers them away from doing what they would without its limitations. Their creativity is running through a motion filter. I know because after a decade of professional After Effects use, I spent a solid week trying to make the switch to Motion, because I HATE Adobe the company SO much. I am now about to rid myself of Adobe after their intrusive CC was just revealed to be nothing less than spyware, but despite my absolute determination to punish Adobe, I still cannot switch to Motion, because motion graphics designers simply CANNOT do what they want to do with Motion. It's the most frustrating thing in the world to see that since FCPX released, and Motion got upgraded with it, Apple VERY clearly does not USE Motion for its own projects. If any real MGFX designer at Apple was using it, it would have been the beneficiary of no less than a hundred major updates by now. If you want to stay SO stuck that you don't even know that you're stuck, then Motion is for you my friends.
a) I have been working in this field since the last century and have been around the houses with many different solutions for motion graphics. The reason I do tutorials for Motion is to help people getting started in this field. b) I use After Effects for work every day and I can confirm both that there are things Motion cannot do that After Effects can and there are things that Motion can do that After Effects cannot. c) I would very politely suggest that it might take longer than a week to discover everything that Motion can and cannot do - one very common reply to my Motion tutorials even from seasoned professionals is 'Wow, I did not know Motion could do that.' d) Motion is in several key ways objectively faster and more efficient than After Effects. e) It doesn't have to be a competition: we can all decide what we're happiest using for any particular job.
Apple did introduce the ability to load USDZ 3D models. But No ability to track 3D camera movement, basically making intergration of 3D graphics with 2D video impossible, unless you buy 3rd party tools. While Blender 3D, has camera tracking included for "free". Unfortunately, Apple has seriously fallen behind on it's Pro Apps.
Apple's strategy, for a very long time, has been to allow third parties to fill in the gaps. We can all take a view as to whether that is a strategy that is of genuine benefit to the end-user ...
What's the third-party tool you're referring to?
@@denisjones45 mTracker 3D by MotionVFX. (I stopped using these guys because whenever Apple updates come along, the 3rd party plugins stop working)
@@denisjones45 Hi it's called MTracker3d by MotionVFX.
@@denisjones45 Hi, there are a few. The one's I recall are:- Boujou, Syntheyes, Mocha Pro and MotionVFX Mtracker3d.Some of these products are even more expensive than Motion itself?
all that apple is missing for a long while is the logic and simplicity. it is to complicated.
I like Motion, but I get the feeling that Apple gets bored with its software.
Hear hear!
Noooo. The Motion logo rusted and died.
yes.
Is Shake obsolete? :(
I have still have the installation disks sitting on the shelf behind me. I might try and test out the answer to your question! I do know that some people have successfully experimented with running it long after its unfortunate death.
it is. it doesn't even have rotobrush. even capcut has rotobrush.
Of course MotionVFX do a rotobrush equivalent for FCP/Motion for those who are prepared to pay for a third party solution.
@@SimonUbsdell mRotoAI is available inside Motion?
Ah, you're right. It's only supported in FCP. An odd oversight, but then MotionVFX have been moving away from Motion for a while.
@@SimonUbsdell :(
You can't make a statement false that is true by redefining what everyone knows the meaning of the words are to your own liking. Obsolete doesn't mean what you say it does in the real world of graphics, software and the industry that requires them.
Tell me you didn't watch the video, without telling me you didn't watch the video.
@@SimonUbsdell that's really rather sad. Yes, of course I watched the video. But your response has nothing to do with my point. You seem to have deleted a previous post of mine when the topic was the wretched UI of Motion,. Perhaps you should adjust your attitude to accept that other opinions exist, that people make cogent arguments without accepting your premises, and that the whole repeated theme of defence of the old, sad app that should have been made free a long time ago simply reinforces that you also know that it's inadequate, and yes, obsolete.
The time I spent listening to your arguments I won''t get back; I don't begrudge that; show a little more respect. After all, thiese comments contribute greatly to your algorithmic position.You are the one with the grift here.
You literally lectured me about a point that I explicitly made in the video! And now you are repeating another of my points! I am really confused as to why you are so angry. And if you think this UA-cam channel even covers my monthly coffee bill you are way off the mark!
so you retract your unfounded assertion that I commented without watching the video? Apology accepted.