FCP: MotionVFX plugins subscription after Apple acquisition?

No one knows for sure at this point, we can only speculate - but I think that Apple will integrate MotionVFX's plugins into Final Cut Pro and/or Motion. I don't think Apple ever acquired a company just to have their income stream as a separate revenue source, Apple doesn't need that, so when Apple acquires a company, it's to integrate them into their products, apps, or services. Maybe Apple will make Motion into an actual After Effects competitor by integrating MotionVFX's plugins into Motion, but I hope that it's to strengthen Final Cut Pro.

Based on history, Apple will take the technology into their own products in very minimal ways. They've never blatantly brought in products like that. So, don't get your hopes up. Motion has historically gotten very little love, as has Compressor. I'm not hopeful. Apple has publicly stated repeatedly over the years that Motion is NOT an AE competitor. Just look at Apple's history of acquisitions, it's almost never been blatantly converting their products into their own, but minimally adding tech in the background. Yep, look at Apple's history of killing products both of their own and of those they buy.

I will say this much for sure, MotionVFX literally lied to us about mO3.

But yeah, what does "joining the Apple team" mean? It's not the same as being "acquired by Apple." What team, exactly, and in what fashion? Maybe it means they simply have a direct line to the Apple dev team? Maybe they became officially registered developers? But joining a team and being bought out are not the same thing. If they have been bought, what happens to current subscribers? Yeah, there's tons of questions to be answered before any of it makes sense. And personally, I've never been a huge MotionVFX fan, outside of mO2. When I ran a TV station we bought a ton of their stuff, and decided a lot of it was wasted money, because most of their templates had very little variation. But that's all just personal taste. Looking forward to some more specific information about what "joining the Apple team" actually means.

Hello BenB,

Thank you for your reply.

”Apple has publicly stated repeatedly over the years that Motion is NOT an AE competitor.”.

Can you link to sources, or at least a single source, when they said this? I would be really curious to hear these words out of Apple’s own mouth, as I believe Motion is intended to be a AE competitor, just an incredibly low-effort one, especially nowadays considering they add tools like the Magnetic Mask (with more advanced features) into Motion, that isn’t really that useful if Motion is still supposed to be only a templates generator for Final Cut Pro.

I've been an Apple Certified (Master) Trainer since 2006. Apple has said repeatedly over the many years in several venues/formats that Motion is not and was never intended to be After Effects. I can not cite you a specific quote anywhere, but yes, they've made that statement publicly many times over many years. If you think that is incorrect, cite a source where Apple claims they are competing with AE. There are none. Today, Motion is a templates generator for Final Cut Pro. That's basically it. Anything put into FCP or Motion eventually ends up in the other. Because they both use the same render engine. I stand by my statement, Apple has said publicly over many years from time to time that Motion is Motion, not AE, and not an AE competitor. But you are free to have your own opinion.

1 - MotionVFX's statement says they "joined" the Apple team. They do not used the terms acquisition or buy-out. Media outlets are using those terms.

2 - Apple itself is not commenting on this at all.

Thus; what does " joining the Apple team" actually mean? The word "joining" does not have the same definition as the word "acquisition".

bump

Thank you for sharing your knowledge BenB. I’m happy to hear that Apple has confirmed that Motion is not an AE competitor.