FCP/After Effects
 

Would some one tell me the difference between FCP and After Effects.
A friend of mind tells me After Effects can do all that FCP can do and better?
I have never work with After Effects, so have no come back.

Thank, Ron

Eh, well..

You can edit video in After Effects sure, just like you have title generation and some effects you can do in Final Cut, but really they are two different programs geared towards two different facets of production. Final Cut is more editing, After Effects is everything graphics.

Chainsaw and miter saw. Each has a purpose. One can't replace the other.

FCP: Ediitng.
AE: Visual effects.

Each has its purpose. And you can't efficiently do the job of one with the other.

Thanks,
So what can FCP do in the editing process that After Effects can’t.
The real reason I am asking these questions is that, our company my what to go with After Effects and I need some more reasons to keep FCP.


Thanks

I work with FCP and AE on a daily base.
It is hard to see the big overview in AE when editing big projects, (+300 clips maby 2-3 hours of footage) But in FCP you can se the big picture in a few secons, and get a good over view fast.

I also had the same idea just to, skip FCP, and go all crazy with AE, but it is just not made for editing long clips, you quickly loose the big overview, with 10 min projekts in AE (unless you pre-compose alot)

The easiest way to explain you is...

Go to a someone who has After Effects and FCP (or different friends).

Now, try to edit a 10 minute narrative short (for example) in FCP. Then try to do the same thing in After Effects and see how long it will take you in comparison.
You'll immediately know the difference ;-)

Final Cut Pro is an editing program. After FX is a visual FX program with some basic editing features built in.

Hi there,

A simple way to choose one over the other is to look at the kind of projects coming in to your company. If the bulk of your work is motion graphics, short-form promos etc, then you may find AE to be a suitable tool. However for any project requiring actual editorial, or dealing with medium to large amounts of source footage, FCP should be your weapon of choice.

You can always point out to management that when you purchase FCStudio, you get Motion as well, which can handle similar tasks as AE, albeit with some exceptions.

Some stuff that AE can do that FCP can't:
- motion tracking
- paint
- 3d Camera's
- freeform masking
- a whole host of other things - I guess an analogy would be photoshop for film/video.


Sandeep

Thanks to all! This helps much.


Ron

With AE you won't be able to get a preview quickly with sound, especially if you have applied any kind of plug-ins or filters to any of the clips. It has to render before it can play back.

FCP will quickly play back your content, even if you applied a filter to the clips. Many of the filters that come with FCP allow real-time playback. Timing is crucial to good editing and you'll find yourself playing back a sequence many times while making adjustments.

But if you tried to do a critical green screen composite, motion tracking, complex rotomasks, image scaling or painting in FCP you'll get frustrated fast. AE is much better at those tasks and more.

AE and FCP are two entirely different applications with specific purposes in mind and there's not much overlap. If I had to animate stills (zoom-in, pan, tilt, etc.) I'd use AE because the scaling algorithm in FCP isn't nearly as good as AE's. And especially if I had to re-size a clip, that would also be done in AE.

If I'm doing a complex edit that required a lot of work in AE, I'll edit it for timing in FCP, then use Automatic Duck to transfer it to AE for finishing.

Hope this helps.

What is—Automatic Duck? Does it come in FCP studio?

Automatic Duck is a third-party plug-in by Wes Plate: Automatic Duck, Inc.

Thanks, Dean

BTW, Automatic Duck isn't cheap. But if you have a lot of edits that need to be worked over in AE, it's a huge time saver and worth the price. Otherwise you have to deal with each shot individually and rebuild things manually in AE.

The first project I used it with easily covered the cost of the application.