I have a MacBookPro core 2 duo. Everything works great except Motion which runs very slow and clunky once I do multiple effects and layers. What is the best way to make it work faster and smoother?

Is there any way to connect another computer, like a mac mini, to share in the processing power?

Thanks.

David,

Motion cannot distribute its computing load to multiple computers. The three things that can help speed things up are:

- A faster main CPU:
Goes without saying.

- A faster graphics card
Motion lets the graphics processor do a lot of the rendering work, so what graphics card you have will make a difference.

- More RAM:
Only if RAM is currently a bottleneck. If you deal with lots of large media files, this may help.

You would see some improvement from moving your Motion work to a MacPro, but short of that, I am afraid there's little you can do to improve the speed of Motion on your MacBook Pro.

- Martin

I have a MacBookPro core 2 duo. Everything works great except Motion which runs very slow and clunky once I do multiple effects and layers. What is the best way to make it work faster and smoother?

Is there any way to connect another computer, like a mac mini, to share in the processing power?

Thanks.

Under the view-menu you can adjust the resolution and render quality while working. This at least let's you work with relatively advanced things without your MBP kneeling, but I suppose you have tried these settings?

There is a very limited amount of effects that you can use in real time, regardless how optimized the applications is. In time, maybe the next 5 years, we will have real-time rendering at HD quality on the desktop but there are effects that still require an incredible amount of computation and that require rendering and that why programs like After Effects and Shake need that approach. The simplest things like animating simple shapes and letters can easily be done in real time. After you apply just a handful of effects the CPU+GPU will be taxed beyond their ability. Render time :)

Thanks for all the responses gents, I had a feeling I was grasping at straws there :)