Motion
 

I recieved a copy of Motion couple of days ago. The program is amazing and very fun to play with. In fact, it's a big time sink.

However, on my Dual 2 GHz with 2.5 GB of ram it is SLOW and gets slower as projects get more complicated. I had one crash in which the program quits in the middle of a render. Quits isn't the word really. It just plumb disappeared.

Other experiences?

Which video card do you have?

I have used Motion on a stock 12" Powerbook with 768MB Ram, a Dual G5 1.8GHz with 1.25GB of Ram and the NVidia 5200 card, as well as on a Dual G5 2Ghz with 2GB of Ram and the ATI 9600 video card. I have spent more than 12 working hours between all three models (most spent on the Dual 1.8). In this process I have doubled the number of objects found in the tutorial. Certainly both the G5s were considerably faster than the Powerbook, and the Dual 2 with the extra Ram stayed responsive through more layers than the Dual 1.8. The Powerbook barely handled the tutorial, but both G5s worked all the way through the tutorial just fine, and the Dual 2 went way beyond this and never bogged down (i.e. real-time all the way). Not once on any of these machines has Motion ever crashed. Why you are experiencing what you are I am unsure of, but time will tell what the kinks in the software are. Just know that this is not everyones experience, so there is likely a resolution.

For others reading this, Apple is really recommending the best video card you can afford (something you will appreciate with Tiger in the future) and at least 2GB of Ram. I have seen the Ram make a difference. Truth is, Motion is likely to sell a lot of computers for Apple. Editors like me who have been making older systems last just a bit longer are getting a major prod with Motion. Or perhaps just a really good excuse.

What's the best video card to get for a Dual 1.8ghz G5 running Motion?
And how much does it cost?

Get either of the two cards Duane mentions, the ATI 9800 or the nvidia 5200.

<<<-- Originally posted by Jeff Donald : Get either of the two cards Duane mentions, the ATI 9800 or the nvidia 5200. -->>>

Which is better?

I am sorry it's taken me a bit to get back to this thread. The video card I have is the one that came with the G5: an ATI 9600 Pro.

As I have worked more with the program I have found that the slowness I experienced seems to be intermittent and I have not had another crash. My guess is that what happened has something to do with networking. Normally when I am doing anything with video I disconnect from my network. I don't think I was disconnected when Motion crashed.

Ray, the nvidia is the only card compatible with the new 30" ACD at this time. Give ATI a few months and I'm sure they will one up nvidia and back and forth it will go.

30"ACD? Is that the new 30" LCD screen? I have no intentions on buying one of those.
I have dual 1.8ghz G5(1st gen) with 17" ACD.
If I were to buy the best card availble now for my setup, which would i get? (I eventually will get Motion)

If you're buying now, I'd get the nvidia. It's currently the fastest. However, I prefer ATI, as they seem to have better drivers and update drivers more frequently. So, if it was me I'd settle for the 9800 (which is a great card) or wait (should be out in 6 to 8 months) for the next ATI card.

I am considering Motion for fire, fog smoke f/x. I had a look at Apples quicktime movies and it didn't look very good to me. However that may be because it is more or less a tutorial and not in context. Can anyone direct me to a movie URL that has some nice Motion f/x.

I am also interested in what any user think about it.

Thanks in advance

I am not going to claim that it is "nice", but I posted a Motion doodle that I did today as I was getting oriented to the program.

The doodle just happens to have some fire and fog effects for obvious reasons. This took maybe 15 minutes to do, so it's hardly refined.

http://www.arbourmedia.com/media/Dragons.mov

Ahh that was absolutely quite nice :-)

Do you think that it would be possible to create a fire and a non burning filmed object?

Do you think that it is possible to create mists over a landscape?

Am I asking too much of it. I was sort of hoping to be able to create those effects in post instead of using pyrotechnics.

Here's a bad day in downtown Lewisburg. Fog blows in and fire breaks out. Again done in just a very few minutes.

The fog looks better than the fire and black smoke effects -- the latter are a little too cartoonish-history channelish to my eye.

http://www.arbourmedia.com/media/BadDay.mov

That's it I am buing Motion! It looks as if it can be very useful. As always less is more!

Thank you very much for taking the time doing the demo!

Peter, did you see League of Extraordinary Gentleman? I believe you will agree that worse fire effects have appeared on screen than what you have created. I am with Bjorn. Getting familiar with Motion quickly will be essential for me to stay competative.

Duane:

Don't get me wrong. Motion is amazing -- I am sure if I took more time the sequences could be refined and be made much better. I've worked with the program for about two - three hours only. My comments were directed more at my lack of skill than at Motion's capabilities.

When I see what's done locally on TV, it's clear that this product is going to vastly improve the quality of what smaller production shops can do.

That fire and fog clip looks pretty impressive to me, and I'm sure that with time and practice all sorts of things are possible. I'm currently considering getting either Motion or After Effects but I don't know how they compare.

I realise that Motion is a lot cheaper and far less powerful, but is it generally true to say that these fog and fire effects could also be done in AE, and that Motion is a subset of AE? Or are they quite different applications? And does Motion integrate with FCP any better than AE does?

OK now I am getting a consistent crash on one project -- an embellishment of the "Dragon" doodle posted above. The only change has been the aqddition of a .jpg file of fish (read dragon) scales to the background layer.

I get a crash every time I open the project file -- several seconds after it generates a formal Apple crash report. Quick read of the report suggests it's the ATI driver thread that's the problem every time.

Have you been to ATI's site and checked for a later version of the Driver? What version OS are you using?

wow nice work, ok gotta get motion not bad at all

Jeff:

As I understand it, normal Apple Software Updates should include new drivers as and if needed. I did just upgrade to 10.3.5 because I thought this was required to installed the application support that Motion requires.

The Apple support forums are reporting some problems with speed etc. I am still hunting for someone with the same experience/system etc. I suppose this is par for the course on complex and brand new software.

They where out at the store so I ordered it from Apple. I guess I have it in about 6 ...








weeks.

Which upgrade did you use? The combo upgrade or simple upgrade? Do the combo update (has to be downloaded from Apple Support) and repair permissions both before and after running the update.

I did not do the combo. I'll try what you suggest and post the results.

Take a look at the following article. Seems to answer my questions. I have the same set-up that is described in the first part of the article except that I have 2.5G of memory.

http://www.lafcpug.org/feature_motion_videocrd.html

A better video card seems to make a great deal of difference.

Yes, it is slow on a dual 2 G5 with 9800pro and 2.5GB ram. It feels just like FCE 1 (that was much smoother in version 2). Also remember the early iMovie days when things where jerky?

It is useful but since it is jerky and slow it is hard to get the timing right.

I ran the same sequence in FCP and in Motion that showed that Motion had trouble running a 2 min clip with a single stereo sound track in a fluent way. I like it a lot but I think that the app is not finished / optimized yet.

Can anyone offer opinions or insight on running Motion on a G4? I've got one of the last dual 1.4Ghz PowerMacs and was thinking of upgrading the video card to run Motion. But it sounds like the program chokes anything short of a 2x2.5Ghz G5. I'm eager to get my hands on this software, but I'm wondering if I'm just going to have to let it go by until I can upgrade my hardware.

motion runs pretty well on my 15" pb, its all about the video card.
run motion and look at the processor % and ram % and its not even using 50% of it.

<<<-- Originally posted by Jeff Donald : If you're buying now, I'd get the nvidia. It's currently the fastest. However, I prefer ATI -->>>

According to the speed test on Bare Feats (http://www.barefeats.com/motion.html) , the ATI RADEON 9800 XT is significantly faster than the Nvidia GeForce FX 5200.

Just wondering about your quote above. Is there something I don't kow?

...

Wrong card, I was referring to the nvidia 6800 Ultra DDL, not the 5200 series.

Cool fx.

So motion is not as powerful as after fx? Either one extensively more complicated to use? Don't have either.

got dual g5 like you.

thanks