Wednesday
Jun222011
What's New in Motion 5?
Wednesday, June 22, 2011 at 9:33AM 
I've written an article that gives a high-level overview of the game-changing changes to Motion - you can read it here.
Wednesday, June 22, 2011 at 9:33AM
Reader Comments (13)
Thanks! I've eager to get started with Motion and FCP. I saw the link on your Twitter feed to Apple's Installation Best Practices and am a little concerned because I can't do the "preferred" method of upgrading. Fingers crossed. Seems like there isn't much new functionality in Motion 5 - just improved UI and FCP integration. Is that a fair assessment? Funny that Motion didn't get a magnetic timeline or that FCP didn't get drag-&-drop Behaviors - those are some of my favorite aspects of each app.
Motion 5 is s complete re-write of the application - it is a full 64-bit app, fully color-managed, works all the time in float space, and has a redesigned user interface. The rigging feature can be used in Motion alone, but combined with Publishing, makes Motion very powerful for creating titles, transitions, and effects for FCP X.
However, even if you don't have FCP X, Motion is worth the price for the new Keyer alone, IMHO.
Hello Mark, I had a look through your review at pro video coalition and have skimmed through some of the video previews of Motion 5 at Ripple Training. I encountered one video, "Apple Motion 5 - Working with a Replicator", in which there appears to be a 3D cube being replicated. It was my understanding that Motion couldn't replicate a 3D group - ie. that the cube would be squashed/flattened once replicated. Does Motion 5 have new functionality when it comes to how it handles 3D designs? In addition, is there any chance it can import any 3D objects now? I partly wonder about the latter question, because a sentence on the Apple website's Motion 5 product page says, "give 3D objects a realistic look." Thanks.
DoAn, there is no new functionality. It's just a design that looks like a 3D cube - I'm not using a 3D replicator to replicate it. No new 3D import capability beyond what's already possible with Cinema 4D (which is a lot!)
Hi. Can you open motion 4 projects in motion 5 ?
yes
I was wondering if it's still worth it to get Motion 5 even though I'm sticking with FCP 7. Even with Motion 4, I never did any roundtripping. I would do something in Motion, export it to my FCP settings and just import the clip. I figured I could do the same thing with Motion 5 with no problems. Are there any features (completely inside Motion 5 of course) that I wouldn't be able to use? Still a good idea to get it?
I think it's worth it for the new Keyer alone! But beware that if you install it alongside Motion 4, that you will no longer have Finder previews of your Motion projects for M4 and M5 projects - and if you want to roundtrip between FCP7 and Motion4, you need to first launch Motion4 - otherwise when you "Send to Motion Project" from FCP7, Motion5 will launch - and it will not round trip. Otherwise, fine to have both M4 and M5 on same system. But make sure you read this:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4722
Thanks Mark!
Mark, I appreciate if you help me to know why my motion 5 quit,when I use filter. I have good speed and memory on my mac book pro with lion? Thanks
No idea, Talla, I've never seen that, sorry. You can always reinstall very easily - just delete the app and redownload from the app store.
Hi,
A basic question 'm working my way through your Motion 4 book and am up to simulation behaviours (Chpter 6 p198 on my version). I've converted the photo layers to a 3D group and as instruched dragged a rectangle (step 3) to the canvas and placed -5000 in z space. According to you (or my reading of it) it should animate (shrink) but it's doing nothing. I continued on and added an attractor (step 7) - again ase instructions but that hasn't linked to the rectangle either. I know I'm doing something basic but a shortcut would help. Cheers, the book is great.
Hard for me to know why it's not working for you, John - perhaps you could send me your project? Markspencer -at- mac -dot- com