As I understand, there are many parts of Apple’s Motion we do not see.
As I understand, there is a code in Motion that is reminiscent of Shake as many of its developers had also worked on Apple’s Pro Apps Development Team.
Shake at one time was one of the top compositions tools for VFX and Compositing. It was used in films such as The Matrix, Lord of the Rings, King Kong, Doctor Who, and many more.
Shake did VFX that made my mouth drop and it still amazes me when I think about it until this day.
I had seen VFX workflows done in Shake, that would have taken hours to days to do even with today’s tools, done in minutes since it was all run by pure code and no GUI.
I had seen in action at a demo I had the honor to see by one of the Matrix VFX artists who had taught a Demo Artist course for Apple Pro Resellers Team. I wish I remember his name as I would love to thank him again. He was amazingly talented!
Apple, as I understand, still has access to the Shake code. I believe the GUI was way ahead of its time especially for the price point.
That shake code, as I also understand is still owned by Apple.
There is also the Apple Color, which was AMAZING! ( Apple, as I understand, may still own the code. )
When Apple discontinued Shake, maintenance program subscribers had the option to license the Shake source code for US$50K. A few VFX studios did this (pretty sure Weta & The Embassy did) – and some actually still use Shake today.
Last time I checked you could still run Shake on Mojave – you just had to launch it from Terminal.”
shared by: Chris Hocking
However, as I understand, Final Cut Pro is the Video Pro flagship tool. I believe, Apple had to invest a heavy amount of time into FCP to earn people’s trust and respect again.
In my opinion, once FCPX regains its reputation we may see Motion, Logic, iMovie, and many more amazing tools get heavy attention and promotion.
Also, we can make our own code, plugins, scripts or tools to make Motion become the tool we need. Similar to what MotionVFX does.
Please let me know what you think. Thank you for your time and have an amazing day.