Amateurfilm-Forum

Zitat

What?! AE 10 for VFX/compositing? Sorry, but as soon as things get reasonably complex, you really want to be working node-based and AE’s layer-based approach, while great for motion graphics, is just not going to cut it. And the tools are by no means as advanced as those in most node-based applications, which have a lot more and better features for edge control (much better than Matte Choker etc.), spill suppression tools, keying, color matching, masking (most allow variable edge feathering nowadays) and so on.
And flame has really some of the best motion graphics tools you can possibly get (the Action schematic kicks AE’s ass when it comes to parenting/instancing, you have real 3D objects including text, reflections, integrated 3D particles (in AE you can hardly get around buying Particular), Autopaint, source nodes, texturing, extended bicubics, and what not). So I really don’t understand that 2 rating. Also, smoke’s motion graphics toolset is a subset of flame’s toolset, so giving it more points in that area than flame really doesn’t make any sense to me at all.
Also, I’d say flame is much easier to learn than smoke since the whole timeline-centric concept requires a lot more conceptual understanding than flame’s simple Desktop approach (i.e. take one or more clips , and then do something to them).
And claiming that Toxik is twice as hard to learn as Shake is simply not right. Toxik is a bit more complex in some areas due to the collaboration features, but once you get some basic concepts, it becomes really intuitive, whereas Shake reveals more and more quirks the more you get into it (ever tried 3D in Shake)?
Also, you didn’t include a usability rating once you know the application. Flame/Smoke absolutely shine in that category, allowing you to get work done quickly and having a gestural interface optimized for use with a Wacom tabled (no right-clicks required, pop-up calculator for sliders, swipe bars at the screen edges etc.). Nuke/Shake/Combustion/Toxik/Fusion are unfortunately miles behind it (but also have a different focus), and AE, while being an amazing application with great motion graphics capabilities, makes it really hard to work efficiently due to its seriously cluttered interface and lack of tools for organizing the timeline (no folders, the only option is precomposing). In flame, very few features are more than two or three clicks away, whereas in AE you already need three clicks to scroll and resize your windows to make room for the feature you are trying to access. Don’t get me wrong, I love AE and I think it’s great, I’m just saying that in terms of efficiency of use, it is unfortunately not among the best.