Customer Reviews

Apple Pro Training Series: Motion

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

As both an instuctor and user of Motion, I can honestly say that this is one of the best Pro Training Series books out there. It is obvious that Damian took the time and cared about creating a book that would work well in both a self paced and classroom environment.

The book is well laid out and actually follows a real world type motion graphics project as it takes you through the app. It is well paced, easy to follow and flows very well. It also has a fair amount of humour that helps things move along.

An excellent book to learn the app and well worth the price of admission.

My hat goes off to Damian for doing a great job on this book.

Well-done Damian. A great foundation course to the introduction to Motion. Thank you.

I just completed this. The author has managed to convey a comprehensive working knowledge of Motion in a (fairly) straightforward manner that has given me a clear insight into the benefits in using this new motion graphics application. The rest will be up to the user to pursue by themselves

Key topics covered: keying, particle creation, the modifying and expanding and randomization of, gestures, audio editing, covering unusual new filters (Slit scan), using Generators, Text animation and behaviors, graphics and behaviors, particles and behaviors, matte tracking, mask animation, color adjustment and a few more.

Highlights for me were using some of the new unusual filters (slit scan) and generators and of course the use of particle generators. A super highlight was use of behavior additions for text animation (similar to A.E text behavior scripts.)

Overall, I think you would be silly not have this book and motion sitting side by side. A great purchase that has opened up for me new creative possibilities that I was previously unaware of and giving me a good working knowledge of the software. Thank you.

FOOTNOTE:

Well, Apple too must be congratulated for the conception of this software. It has filled a big whole that has been lacking in after effects for sometime now (a flexible and simple to use particle system). Also, this new method of animation using "behaviors" is really interesting and forward thinking. (Creating animation key frames that would be almost impossible to key by hand.) Great work.

Interesting to note the similarities between Apples motion and Combustion. They seem to work almost in the same way.

Negative points;
Difficult for students to purchase both the software and the necessary graphics card as well to use motion.
At present, Illustrator layers are not supported and importing vector graphics is not as well. No paint options and no 3d layers as well. Rasterized images only.
Real time playback will depend on your system setup. I could not get this to full frame rate even with RAM preview for certain animations. (Text animation projects).
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I've read a lot of how-to software books, but this is one of the best. The author dives right into a project from the get-go, giving you a good feel not only for how to accomplish things, but how to establish good work habits for using the application productively, which is important.

The production quality of this book is excellent too, compared to most other software books I've read. (The Peachpit Press Wow! series of books is likewise high-quality too.) The book is very clearly laid out, easy to navigate and hop around in, not too dense, and best of all - the whole thing is in full color, and the screen-shots are big enough to be clear and easy to read. Very nice. Damian's writing is both instructive and enjoyable to read, too.

Not much else to add here beyond what the others have said. If you have an interest in learning Motion, you couldn't find a better place to start.

As a fellow PeachPit author, I know what it takes to produce a book like this. First off, congrats to Damian for getting this book to market.

This book is by far one of the best tutorial books I've read for any software package. It's clear and to the point. You get right in, right away and begin creating within minutes. Frankly, it's one of the only books on software I've not wanted to put down. In addition, I'm finding myself going back to it time and again for additional info and insights.

The project content worked flawlessly, and unlike some After Effects books, the projects all worked natively - I didn't need to buy any third party plug-ins. Motion (and now Motion 2) has replaced After Effects at our studio. It's speed and ease of use makes it the clear winner - Damian's book helped us over the hump.

Great job! When's the next one coming out?

I am new to Motion (2) and not a full time video editor or professional. Even so, the tutorial is excellent: well written, logical, easy to follow. If you produce the occasional movie (just for fun) and want to step up to the more sophisticated capabilities of Motion 2, you can't go wrong with this book.

This is the third of the Pro Training Series books I've used (DVDSP and FCP are the others) and while the others are excellent, this is the best of the bunch. The first chapter alone taught me tricks and shortcuts I hadn't learned through the manual or the DVD training series I used. I've been using Motion practically since day one of its release and it's strength (and weakness) is that it can do just about anything...you just have to figure out what you want done and how to do it. This book has great lessons that expand one's knowledge and outlook on the program.

I've used a number of tutorial books for vaious applications over the years, including the Final Cut 5 one by Diana Weynand, but this has got to be the easiest, clearest one I've come across.
The lessons are interesting, they move along at a good clip and provide detailed explanations without being too weighty. And there are no serious discrepancies between what's in the book and the program, meaning no scratching your head because something isn't working. Well done.

This book offers more than a dozen lessons and all the media you need to follow along. By "collaborating" with the author on the project files included, you'll learn the basics of text, particle generators, mattes and keying, incorporating sound and doing precise keyframing. The author also explains the interface and how Motion differs from many other motion graphics apps in its reduced reliance on using the timeline, instead focusing on a much cleaner and easier to use series of contextual palettes.

I have one caveat for those looking at motion graphics and not sure where to begin. Although, as this book shows, Motion can work with rendered "3D" movie objects, creating them is not what this program does. You'll work extensively with a 3D butterfly movie included with this book, but creating that movie is outside Motion's capabilities. If you're interested in creating 3D objects, you might look at Maya or Lightwave.

I was hoping for a "Dummies" type tutorial, but this is more complex than I was hoping. It is easy to understand as far as following along in the book and working with the project provided, but it didn't give me a clue as to how to start a project of my own from scratch. I learned how to replicate a bunch of butterflies from a single image, but it's near impossible to figure out something as simple as a "24" type multi screen (easy enough to do in Final Cut, but should be CAKE in Motion). I am currently looking for something a bit simpler and wider in scope.

this book is for anyone who feels overwhelmed by motion and its numerous applications. the easy to follow tuturials are what i needed to finally figure out this program.