After Effects Vs. Fusion?

Hey Guys,

Not sure if there is a post about this already. Basically I am looking to down the line migrate away from Adobe subscription fees as I do not like being beholden to a company that cares more about revenue then its customers. They recently increased the cost of their creative cloud subscriptions from £90.00 to £140.00 to me that's a huge leap for what they described as fluctuating exchange rates post Brexit.

Either way I just want to know if I can get out of as many subscription based fees as possible to keep my monthly outgoings down while keeping my creative pipeline in place.

In AE I use Red Giant Softwares Trapcode my only third party plugin. I also use expressions quite a bit and I love the AE comp system. Is Fusion a similar workflow to AE?

Cheers,

Fusion is a total different workflow then AE. Look at some tutorials on the web and you can see how it works.
Nodes may be confusing at first but can give you better control in certain situations

It depends a lot on the work you do if fusion fits for you
If you do a lot of motion graphics there is no way around AE. You can do great motion graphics in fusion, but some things are easier done in AE

the other thing to look at are your rates. Should you be charging more to help cover the rising cost of licensing and overall O&M? Lastly, take a look at other options like Hitfilm, which is more like AE than something like Fusion.

There's a previous thread about this:

http://forum.blackmagicdesign.com/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=58937

Hey Guys,

Not sure if there is a post about this already. Basically I am looking to down the line migrate away from Adobe subscription fees as I do not like being beholden to a company that cares more about revenue then its customers. They recently increased the cost of their creative cloud subscriptions from £90.00 to £140.00 to me that's a huge leap for what they described as fluctuating exchange rates post Brexit.

Good grief, I didn't know Adobe were doing that, to such a high degree. Our two licenses are locked on cost for another year I think, so thanks for the heads-up - that's not funny.

Yes, there is a fuller thread on this subject - just read it - good discussion.

Hey Guys,
Thanks for the feedback and advice

I knew someone would have asked the question lol!

Yeah I just want a work flow that migrates away from these fee based models where the provider can change the rates depending on their mood. Plus the user owns nothing at the end of the day, your just leasing a tool from a company rather then owning it.

If you haven't felt the pinch yet you will as soon as that subscription expires so be prepared. Personally I thought £90.00 was cheap for the entire adobe suite so I didn't mind paying more when they asked. I just thought an extra £50.00 was extortion. And the way it was forced on us just out of the blue it just annoyed me.

I don't like being beholden to people who can charge Joe User when they have a bad quarter, they might not do that but I don't trust them.

I don't have any software in subscription model, but I consider it cruel because not every time you use the software you are making money (but certainly you are paying).

Imagine this situation: I have an old project that I want to open just to remember how I created some effect or I want to locate some file. Nobody is paying me for this. Imagine that I have suspended the subscription because I have no AE jobs in the near future.

Or I want make a tutorial with some technique and I want to share with the community.

So to open MY project, with a non-profit intention, I have to pay? This is the closest to a ransom that I can imagine.

Besides, in the case of Fusion, almost every project is forward AND backward compatible. You can, with little or no effort, open a Fusion 8 project in a Fusion 6 program. You are not forced to upgrade just to open a recent project.

I switched 2 years ago from Adobe. I primarily use Cinema 4D and try and do 80% of my work in Cinema.

Using Fusion as an AE replacement for me was the best thing ever! I even use it for most of the things I would do in Photoshop in the past... Affinity Photo and Designer smoke Photoshop and Illustrator in my opinion as well...

To be honest I wish I never learned how to use AE at all... I seriously hate After Effects... It has screwed my over many times...

Anyhow! Start using Fusion! It's amazing!

- Shawn

Coming from After Effects myself, I'm completely on board with Fusion.

I haven't done a lot of scripting in Fusion yet, and I miss Optical Flares, but node workflows are a godsend compared to the pre-comp nightmares of AE.

Come to the dark side, you won't be disappointed.

Jeff, Optical Flares and other lens effect are in Resolve.
Welcome to darker side of DR15 with integrated Fusion.

https://www.steakunderwater.com/wesuckl ... =14&t=2028

LensFlare for Blackmagic Fusion WIP... ...

I'm assuming the previous is referring to is the specific package Optical Flares by Video CoPilot, which is by far the best lens flare plugin available and has a version that has terrific integration with Nuke as well.

And I'm also assuming that the Resolve "Optical Flares" mentioned is the built in resolve flare package, which isn't really in the same league and is more like the flare templates in the fusion bins and the various lens flare macros that have been built for Fusion like the old macro LenzWhore by Theodore Groeneboom (which I still use) and June's WIP flares.

Unless the Video CoPilot have come up with a version for Resolve and I hadn't heard?

See this thread
https://www.steakunderwater.com/wesuckl ... s&start=15

with the integration of Fusion in Da Vinci Resolve we will see a lot of OFX plugins coming.
It’s a new business for all the developers.
I think that Adobe will integrate AE in Premiere Pro or will develop another hybrid editing-compositing software otherwise many Premiere Pro users will move on Da Vinci Resolve 15.X.
I will mantain my Adobe subscription because I need Illustrator and Photoshop but today I migrated on Da Vinci all the editing job.

Hey Guys,
In AE I use Red Giant Softwares Trapcode my only third party plugin. I also use expressions quite a bit and I love the AE comp system.
Cheers,

You wan't find similar tool to trapcode. There are some tools from Krokodove giving some of Trapcodes possibilities and Fusion Particle system itself. Krokodove will be extremely slow in most cases unfortunatelly. And Fusion Particle system is very powerfull but needs some skills.

Expressions? You'll like them in Fu. Expressions are better organised, you can use modifiers which help a lot. imho - you can do much more sophisticated things with them.

What you'll definitelly like is the way to work. With some experience you'll start looking at layer based compositing with hatered. It's easierto navigate yourself in a very complex projects and faster regarding workflow. I even composit some print materials in Fusion. It's easier for me then in Illustrator or Photoshop.

I myself was once traped by Adobes subscription system. I switched to BMD software and I feel reborn. Just some tools are missing but I can live with it or do some workarounds..

I was referring specifically to Video Copilot's Optical Flares. I don't like the flare presets in Fusion, nor do I have the patients to customize them to my liking.

That LF Flare business looks intriguing.

Some shameless self promotion :

viewtopic.php?f=22&t=65121&hilit=Flares

Not as versatile and customizable as AE optical flares, a bit to slow and some parts could be made better, but you can make nice looking flares within fusion

Concerning Lens Flares.

For Fusion in Resolve 15 you can also add lens flares on the color page: OpenFX > ResolveFX Light > Lens Flare. Again they are built in and you do not have to pay for an extra plugin.
Of course, one may still argue that Optical Flares from VC are faster and more versatile. Unfortunately somewhat expensive alternatives could be Sapphire OFX or Digital Film Tools. Both work in Fusion and in Resolve and they contain similarly powerful lens flare builders.

Moreover, June Yu announced a very promising alternative to Optical Flares in Fusion. I guess and hope they are quite cheap again. From this, the absence of Optical Flares from the Fusion case should not be a critical argument pro AE.