Do you remember those 70's commercials where someone eating peanut butter collided with someone eating chocolate? The slogan was, "two great tastes, that taste great together." We're borrowing that line to describe the experience of putting After Effects and Motion together to create a powerhouse of motion graphics potential.
As you can see from our unambiguous title - Motion for After Effects Users - we created the world's first tutorial that teaches Motion from the perspective of an After Effects user. If you're an After Effects user and are considering learning Motion, this tutorial will help you avoid some of the pitfalls and frustrations that other After Effects users have experienced using Motion for the first time. The tutorial's running time is over an hour and covers fundamental topics such as: navigation shortcuts, working with filters and behaviors, adding a mask, applying particle emitters and replicators and much more.
Motion for After Effects Users is presented in 9 lessons and includes all the necessary media files for following along in Motion. Mark Spencer will walk you through the creation of a news bumper using content found in the Motion library. All lessons are formatted for viewing on Macs, PCs, and Apple TV. For full descriptions of each lesson, see the table of contents below.
This tutorial is available through iTunes. If you've never ordered an iTunes product from us, click the Frequently Asked Questions link below:
I use After Effects, why do I need to learn Motion?
Because Motion compliments your After Effects workflow and if used strategically, will open up new creative possibilities. Learning Motion also opens the door to greater collaboration with post facilities that are Final Cut Studio centric. A strong foundation in Motion will allow you to work faster and more efficiently in these environments, even if After Effects is the primary tool for generating motion graphics content.
I already know After Effects, can't I teach myself?
Knowing After Effects is certainly an asset to learning Motion, but it can also be a liability. This is because Motion, while After Effects-like, is not After Effects. As they say, "the devil is in the details" and if you are not clear on those details, there is potential for hair-pulling. Here are some typical questions that beguile first time Motion users coming from After Effects:
Where is the Project Panel?
How do I create Compositions?
Can I have more than one Comp in a project?
Where is my Timeline?
Can I use Expressions?
Where are my Transfer modes?
Where do I set Keyframes?
Where is the Render Queue?
How does this tutorial differ from others?
This tutorial is the only Motion training we know of, created specifically for users of After Effects. We don't waste your time explaining what a keyframe is or how a transfer mode works. For those of you who want more in-depth training, we recommend purchasing our introductory Motion product, "Motion 3 Fast Forward"
What can I do in Motion that is faster, easier or just can't be done in After Effects?
We're glad you asked. Instead of listing them out, check out this short movie Mark Spencer created to showcase Motion's unique talents.
Mark Spencer is a bay area-based producer, editor, teacher and writer. He owns Day Street Productions, Inc. (www.daystreet.com), a production and post studio focused on corporate video. Mark is also an Apple-certified instructor and the author of Motion 3 Fast Forward, and Motion 3 Deep Dive tutorials.
