Sun Mar 31, 2024 8:08 pm
I only started using Fusion inside Resolve recently, so I don't know how much better or worse it is for motion graphics than AE. I've used AE since 1999 so I know it quite well.
I would say that by now I hate AE because it suffers from the same problems most Adobe software does, however, to a lesser extent. Premiere is unbearable to work with, half the time it stalls for no reason even working with proxies, and there are all kinds of weird happenings.
Most Adobe software is ancient, with features thrown on top of them to sell the subscription, but I'm so fed up with the GUIs and bugs that I can't stand them anymore. I don't pay for CC, I use it when I have a job that leaves me no choice and it's paid for by the company, not me.
But while I don't have a lot of experience with Fusion, in my short experience with it, what I see as the main problem is the keyframing. I like the nodes, it's an interesting mode of working that I hadn't seen before, and I'm going to learn them as much as possible, but the keyframing area, with those really thin keyframe indicators that are barely visible, doesn't really invite me to work with them. I can't even imagine what must be like to animate a complex scene.
Unless I'm missing something, can those be turned into the usual shape for keyframes (sorry, the name doesn't come to me now, but it's the square rotated 45º). I don't know, they're just too weird.
Adding to the weirdness is the fact that mouse wheel modifiers are totally different between Resolve and Fusion. I mean, I think they started out as separate programs, and there's still a standalone Fusion, but Fusion has the mouse wheel modifiers that make sense, while Resolve doesn't.
The Command key in macOS (I haven't used Resolve in Windows but I assume the Control key has the same function, as everything that is a shortcut with the Cmd key in Macs is with the CTRL key in Windows), when pressed and the mouse wheel moved, zooms in and out the timeline. Doing the same but with the Shift key causes the timeline to scroll to the left or right.
Well, Fusion has this behavior at least for the Keyframes area, although for the program or monitor area it's only for the Cmd key to zoom in and out. **** doesn't do anything. Also in the keyframes area pressing Alt causes the same effect as the Shift key, horizontal scrolling. But nothing in the program area. But OK, at least inside the keyframes area, you can work with the standard mouse wheel modifiers.
Except that if you go back and forth between the Fusion and Edit pages, then in the Edit page you need to reprogram your brain to use a totally different modifier set, where the Alt key is the zoom in and out, and the Cmd key is the horizontal scroll one. And the Shift key is the one to make tracks shorter or higher vertically.
So it's a world of confusion. Between the almost invisible keyframes and the mouse wheel modifier chaos, it seems to me that doing motion graphics in Fusion might be a little hard.
So my choice for that is Apple Motion. I paid $50 for it in 2016 and had free upgrades ever since. And it has a keyframing interface that is similar enough to AE, but better. Also, unlike AE, it has groups where you can put several clips and generators and apply transforms and effects to the whole group. No need to precomp to death like AE.
Maybe if Blackmagic set the wheel modifiers in the Edit Page and Color page (I still haven't used the Cut page as I find the Edit one easier), to the same ones as in the Fusion page, then working in Fusion would be easier.