When I started in television production in 1995, editing tape to tape, never did I imagine that I would someday be able to create special effects like those I saw in the movies.
One feature of Motion I found particularly useful and fun, is how to animate photos.
Back then, unless you worked for Lucasfilm or another big-time studio, you did most of your effects using an analog switcher, like the the Panasonic WJ-MX50 that I used. Entry in, entry out, auto edit, add a little strobe, add a mosaic trail … oh, the days of analog.
I wish I could truly say I miss those days, but if I had the tight turnaround deadlines back then, that I do today, there is no way I could keep up with the demand.
These days, we can shoot, edit and publish straight from our smartphones in HD. What happens, though, when you want to add that little extra flair to make your project stand out from all the rest?
That brings us to the world of digital special effects!
3D, compositing and motion graphics software has come a long way, since I was first introduced to it in 1997. I remember making a simple text animation using Lightwave 3D, having to wait hours, if not a full day, to see it in motion.
To tell the truth, that experience turned me off from designing animation then.
I didn’t have the patience to wait to see what would turn out to be my final product, just to see that I missed a keyframe and had to start all over.
Today, if you’re going to make it as an editor, you need to be familiar with at least a few compositing and effects software options.
Luckily, you have plenty to choose from: Apple Motion, Adobe After Effects, Blender, Autodesk Maya, Nuke & Cinema 4D, are just a few of the many out there.
One thing you must keep in mind is that, just like a carpenter has their specific tools for specific jobs, the same goes for these software programs.
Over three parts, I will go over a trio of the ones that I’ve worked with over the past several years.
Apple Motion
Up until Apple Motion’s release in 2004, as an editor I had to rely on prepackaged content, like Digital Juice, to make my projects pop.
At the time, I was a Final Cut Pro guy, and when Motion came out, it quickly became my go-to program for custom lower thirds, titles and particle effects.
Fifteen years later, Motion now does so much more.
With Motion’s 5.4 update, some of the newest features include 360-degree motion graphics support, with live output to VR headsets, where you can build realistic spring-loaded animations, without the need for complex keyframes. It also supports numerous popular codecs for easier import/export.
One feature of Motion I found particularly useful and fun, is how to animate photos, to give it a 3D or Parallax effect. “Parallax is a technique in computer graphics where background images move past the camera more slowly than foreground images, creating an illusion of depth in a 2D scene, and adding to the sense of immersion in the virtual experience,” is how it is described on Wikipedia.
With Motion, you can import a layered Photoshop or .PSD file directly into it, and by using it’s heads up display with the virtual camera, you can easily create a moving 3D effect in a matter of minutes. Yes, you can do this in other applications, but I found that with Motion, it is the most intuitive for those that pay attention to details.
For those wanting to learn about many of Motion’s tools, there is also no shortage of tutorials available online. If you want to figure out how to do something, you’re just a click away from someone on YouTube that is happy to show you step-by-step video on how to make it happen.
Another plus to Motion is that its price point is $50. For all that it does, you can’t beat that price.
One negative, though, is that it only plays nice with computers running the Mac operating system. If you’re already using a Mac, then you may want to give this a shot for your motion graphics, visual effects and titling needs. If you’re a PC person, you may want to try out another software option, among the other two that I will cover over the next two parts.