After Effects vs Fusion vs Nuke vs ...

Hi all

I have been learning Resolve for a while now to grade & edit my footage using BMMCC. I am also feeling the need to learn something for some motion graphics and just may be very basic VFX too but the former is the main thing I am after.

Now I know this is a fusion forum but mostly someone who is good at one software knows about the other software that can do similar things too. So for someone like myself who is enjoying Resolve for editing & grading, which would be the easiest choice to go for Fusion or AE? Now I know that there is the issue of node vs layer based which makes me go for Fusion but then AE has been there for a long while and there are thousands of tutorials for everything to do with AE. I am also seeing some people say that they ditched AE for fusion and then they ditched fusion for Nuke. So yeah if there is any other tool that is quick to learn, please mention it too.

My main criteria is it being easy/quick to learn, compatibility with Resolve and not very limited for motion graphics and possibly VFX too.

Thank you!

Easy/quick to learn is always highly personal of course.
For me personally Fusion has always worked 'the way my mind works' - you start with something, then you do something with it, do another thing with it, combine it with something else etc.
So in my mind I've always connected 'nodes' even before I started, that's why the AE way or working with layers never appealed to me.

None of this software is *really* easy to learn. You will always have to put in the work. But if you're already editing and grading in Resolve, I'd suggest trying to work with Fusion first. BMD owns Fusion and is working hard to make it an integral part of Resolve, so interaction between your footage and your VFX or Motion Graphics will get the most attention developer wise compared to the amount of effort they will spend to get it to work with AE or Nuke or whatever.

If you don't know AE, then you might as well learn Fusion within Resolve. You have nothing to lose since you're not used to one or another, and if you feel that Resolve is now your main NLE, you might as well stick with the Blackmagic ecosystem at this point.

I would recommend some starter tutorials from these YouTube channels:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_4HXu ... Vgw/videos

and

https://www.youtube.com/user/CaseyFaris777/videos



Start with simple stuff like text effects, then slowly graduate to particles and camera tracking. After a while it will all make more sense.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_4HXu ... Vgw/videos

and

https://www.youtube.com/user/CaseyFaris777/videos

2 of my favourite Resolve dudes, they make good tutorials, I have not watched their recent stuff but if their Fusion tutorials are like their Resolve tutorials, it should be good

I am in a similar situation. For me, it totally makes sense to learn Fusion, and that is what I am trying to do at the moment. I never really liked After Effects. It always somehow felt really messy and disorganized to me. Never really "clicked" with me.

The difficulty I'm having though, is finding training resources for Fusion. Its a pretty different program, for someone who is unused to that kind of workflow, and there seems to be very limited courses available for it. There are a few tutorials on youtube, (and thankfully a few more now that its in Resolve), but they are fairly random. And a lot of the other training seems directed at already advanced users, I guess because of the nature of the software.

I did find one really good broad overview youtube video.

After watching this, I actually felt I understood what the software was about in a general sense.
But, yeah, it definitely feels like a challenge to learn. From what I've read though, there seems to be an awareness of this in the community, so hopefully that will change. And being included with resolve should motive that somewhat.

Good luck!

thanks for the replies guys.

I was gonna go for fusion last month, but got sidetracked because of some work. But last few days been researching again and lot of redditers saying that Fusion is primarily a compositing tool and not a MG tool where as AE is primarily a motion graphics tool. Is this true in your experience too?

If you don't know AE, then you might as well learn Fusion within Resolve. You have nothing to lose since you're not used to one or another, and if you feel that Resolve is now your main NLE, you might as well stick with the Blackmagic ecosystem at this point.

I would recommend some starter tutorials from these YouTube channels:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_4HXu ... Vgw/videos

and

https://www.youtube.com/user/CaseyFaris777/videos



Start with simple stuff like text effects, then slowly graduate to particles and camera tracking. After a while it will all make more sense.

Casey Faris is brilliant, learnt a lot of resolve from him.

I do use Adobe software too (don't mean their pdf reader ) like Lightroom & Photoshop a lot. Also did a bit of Flash when i was in school lol. But now i will be doing it 'semi-pro' level so I want to stick with one software and become good at it.

thanks for the replies guys.

I was gonna go for fusion last month, but got sidetracked because of some work. But last few days been researching again and lot of redditers saying that Fusion is primarily a compositing tool and not a MG tool where as AE is primarily a motion graphics tool. Is this true in your experience too?

It depends on what you want to do and what your needs are for motion graphics.

For some stuff, particularly this type of things, AE is currently difficult to replace:

I on the other hand don't do that type of thing, and my needs are more about motion tracking and doing screen replacements and compositing and overall photorealistic stuff.

I use both at this point for different things, but as Fusion gains more capability I can see phasing out AE completely.

If they could get VideoCoPilot's Optical Flares ported to OFX and add a handful of nodes which are pretty much a staple in AE then I would phase out AE entirely.

If they could get VideoCoPilot's Optical Flares ported to OFX and add a handful of nodes which are pretty much a staple in AE then I would phase out AE entirely.

OpticalFlares for OFX hosts is already available and works without problems in other softwares, not sure about Fusion though.

OpticalFlares for OFX hosts is already available and works without problems in other softwares, not sure about Fusion though.

Optical Flares is available for AE and Nuke. Whether or not the Nuke build utilizes just the NDK or OFX I don’t know. In the FAQ it is mentioned that the Nuke build does true blocking of light using 3D lights in a 3D scene, however OFX (based on my reading) is purely 2D. Which means they are hooking into Nuke’s internal 3D system.

This is all guessing, I don’t own the plugin.

Cheers,
Mike

For some stuff, particularly this type of things, AE is currently difficult to replace:

This is true and slightly misleading at the same time. The animation seen in that example was done with a $89 add-on/script. That's about 1/3rd of the whole price of Fusion/Resolve and that's in addition to the price you pay to have AE at your disposal. So yes, it's much easier with that script, but it's not built-in in AE. You could probably do most of this in Fusion, but it would take some more work.
But then again, so would doing it in AE without that script.

So yes, it's much easier with that script, but it's not built-in in AE. You could probably do most of this in Fusion, but it would take some more work.
But then again, so would doing it in AE without that script.

True, but the point is that places like aescripts.com and Red Giant have a ton of very useful tools (albeit non-free) for AE whereas Fusion is far more limited when it comes to third party add ons.

Having said that, Krokodove is a great resource:

http://www.krokodove.com/wordpress/

Optical Flares is available for AE and Nuke. Whether or not the Nuke build utilizes just the NDK or OFX I don’t know. In the FAQ it is mentioned that the Nuke build does true blocking of light using 3D lights in a 3D scene, however OFX (based on my reading) is purely 2D. Which means they are hooking into Nuke’s internal 3D system.

Oops, my mistake, I got it mixed in my head with Neatvideo Denoise. I own the OF for Nuke, but as you wrote this it occurred to me that they have different versions for different Nuke releases so they definitely use the NDK.

. . . and it would be truly great if Video CoPilot did a fusion version of Optical Flares that worked like the Nuke one. This has been a long standing wish - at one point way back in 2013 it was mooted on the VideoCopilot forum -

https://www.videocopilot.net/forum/view ... =8&t=30735

and reiterated on WSL

https://www.steakunderwater.com/wesuckl ... ares#p7651

but no luck. Probably the plug in I miss most, although some level of RedShift renderer compatibility would be orgasmic.

As an aside, there has also been some recent discussion of lens flare setups in Fusion on WSL.

https://www.steakunderwater.com/wesuckl ... res#p16818

True, but the point is that places like aescripts.com and Red Giant have a ton of very useful tools (albeit non-free) for AE whereas Fusion is far more limited when it comes to third party add ons.

They may be limited in number, but not in ingenuity.
Just check out Reactor and see how much cool stuff is available for Fusion.

.although some level of RedShift renderer compatibility would be orgasmic.

Can you be more specific what you mean by that?
Do you want a redshift renderer in fusion or something else?