Motion 5 users - Motion 4 vs Motion 5 ?

1. Measures up about the same, overall. Motion 5 does not seem to be missing any features over 4, but things have changed, like roundtripping to FCP.

2. Rigging, and compound effect creation for use in FCPX.

3. Sometimes seems more sluggish than Motion 4. The new interface is good and bad. Color scheme is nice, but you cannot break apart the interface and use on multiple monitiors as easy as before. I have a cinema display and another dell turned portrait for panels and directory windows and whatnot, and I can't peel them away from Motion 5 (or can i?).

4. If you are going to use FCPX, then the upgrade is worth it. If not, then the upgrade may not be worth it. Motion 4 works just as well in Lion (so far).

Overall, I can create stuff faster in Motion than in AE 5 (which is also very nice).

Because I've been curious about some posts of sluggiish performance in Motion 5, I've tested duplicate files v4 against v5. And I cannot confirm any significant speed/quality differences between them–at least as a stand-alone application. I happen to like v5 interface much better than v4, despite the fixed nature of the new windows.

The new keyer alone is enough of an upgrade for me to prefer v5.

Russ

I'm a legacy FCP7 user. Just recently tried upgrading to FCPX, but can't stand it (not professional enough for my workflow), so I'm sticking with 7. Now, I need to learn Motion, and I'm not that comfortable with all the concepts of motion graphics, so I'm looking for the easiest package to learn and use. Should I learn Motion 4 or Motion 5? I'm leaning toward Motion 5 because (ironically) I think it might be more 'consumerized' and easier to learn, and I won't have much need for any high-end work. Any thoughts on this?

I'd say stick with Motion 4. You have the benefit of round-tripping, and unless you plan on keying a lot of green screen footage, you probably don't need Motion 5.

Motion 5 is no more or less "consumerized" than v4 – actually not much difference between them. As noted elsewhere, the keyer is really good and an improvement, there's rigging, and the UI is perhaps slightly easier to navigate around. But seeing as you have already v4, I can't see any reason why you shouldn't use that to learn on – unless you do a fair amount of green screen work.

Good luck.

Russ

I've been using Motion4 for a few years now. I personally feel that FCP7.0 , motion4 and compressor 3 are starting to die a slow death. As I upgrade OS and purchase pluggins, I'm finding Studio 3 is starting to crash more, slow down, etc.. I also use Adobe products and am in the process of making a transition from FCP7 to Premiere Pro in CS6. I like Motion though. And I like the fact that it's 64bit. Could anyone tell me, are there a lot of new features and effects in Motion5? I use some of the stock particles and backgrounds, etc in Motion4 - especially when time is an issue. It would be great to know that Motion5 has some fresh new particle fx and a whole library of fresh assets....

If you are not going to be using FCPX, then the dif is not much between Motion 4 and 5, inmo. But 5 is a better performer and the UI is improved. As far as assets, I did not notice much new. But I am like you, I use Premier a lot and prefer Motion over AE for most things...

The keyer in Motion 5 is much improved, and is worth the price ofthe upgrade alone. As has been mentioned before; but it's also my personal opinion.

I prefer the Motion 4 user interface though, it's just easier for me to find things there for some reason.

Even if the M5 UI is good looking :-)

My $0.02

E!