Video Compositing Software For Mac

Top 5 commercial visual effects software #1 Autodesk Maya. OS: Windows, Mac, and Linux. Price: $195/month, $1,545/year, or $4170/3 years. Commonly known as Maya, it can be the best VFX software for Mac, Windows and Linux. It is widely used in the production of movies, TV series, video. Online shopping for Software from a great selection of Video Editing, DVD & Blu-Ray Movie Players, Compositing & Effects, Encoding, Video Software & more at everyday low prices. Brand: EzaLink. Easy to use professional Green Screen Video Composing Software. Now you can produce green screen videos like the pros. Pro Version Bonuses: Additional plugins for your green screen software, user guides and videos, customer support All you need on 1 DVD: this DVD has all the software and tutorials you need to make professional videos using a green screen. Natron Features. On the surface Natron has a powerful GUI interface that is a flexible and intuitive multi-platform node based engine. Natron may seem to be a simple compositing application but it does have layers of complexity that will allow your creativity to reach new heights.

10 - ZS4 Video Editor & MovieMator Free Mac Video Editor ZS4 Video Editor is advanced video editing and compositing software with over 150 built-in video effects. It is said to support unlimited number of audio, video and picture tracks and unlimited number of video/audio effects for every track.

Here’s a list of the best visual effects software for beginners and professionals, including paid and free ones.

Visual effects (or VFX) is the process of creating and manipulating computer-generated imagery. VFX is already an important part of filmmaking and is becoming more and more important these days. There are several types of visual effects such as modeling, animation, compositing and rotoscoping. Thanks to visual effects software, things can be a lot easier.

The best VFX software for beginners

If you are looking for an easy-to-use video editor with special effects that allows you to do some basic VFX, then Wondershare Filmora can be the best choice. Filmora comes with over 300 built-in effects, not to mention the professional visual effect sets and packages offered by its Filmstocks effects store. With them, even beginners can create amazing videos. It’s available for both PC (Windows 7 or later) and Mac (macOS 10.11 or later).

Easy for beginners

Many visual effects software programs used in the production of Hollywood blockbusters are node based. Unlike them, Filmora is layer based, which makes it’s easy to get started. Its interface is simple, intuitive and easy to navigate. Novices can benefit from its mild learning curve, and advanced users can efficiently achieve the effects they want with high flexibility.

Tons of visual effects available for instant use

Sometimes, things can be as easy as drag-and-drop. Before diving into something more advanced, let’s take a look at the video effects that are already available for use. The said VFX video editing software provides categories of effects for different scenarios. For example, there are blockbuster effects.

  • Electricity
  • Explosions
  • Destruction
  • Lasers
  • Bullets
  • Bullet hits
  • Suppressed gunshots
  • Small gunshots
  • Rifle shots
  • Front gunshots
  • Bullet pass
  • Big gunshots
  • Blasts
  • Meteors
  • Massive explosion
  • Fire
  • And more…

Use it for compositing

Video Compositing Software Free

As the best VFX software for beginners, it allows you to easily do green screen compositing. Drag the green screen video and your background footage into the program. Right-click former in the timeline and choose Green Screen. Now you can find the Chroma Key (Green Screen) feature. Tweak the setting until you are happy with the result. It’s that easy to key out green screen. If needed, you can crop out the unwanted part of the green screen video using the Crop feature.

You can also use it to easily layer your video, get picture-in-picture effect and add lens flares and light leaks to your video, among other things.

Use it for animation

This program also offers a set of powerful animation tools. There are preset animation effects, which you can directly drop into your footage. Some of them are Center Wipe, Evaporate and Linear Wipe.

Also, it’s easy to change and animation parameters using key frames.

What can Filmora do?

  • Do visual effects such as green screen compositing
  • Allow you to add up to 100 media layers for complex projects
  • Provide more than 300 easy-to-apply special effects
  • Trim, crop, rotate, layer and manipulate your video footages
  • Support all popular video, audio and image formats
  • Add text, titles, subtitles and captions
  • Add motion graphics
  • Apply filters and overlays
  • Do video stabilization, speed control and audio separation
  • And much more…

Top 5 commercial visual effects software

#1 Autodesk Maya

OS: Windows, Mac, and Linux

Price: $195/month, $1,545/year, or $4170/3 years

Commonly known as Maya, it can be the best VFX software for Mac, Windows and Linux. It is widely used in the production of movies, TV series, video games and other works. Coming with a rich array of features, this VFX software program is great for 3D modeling, animation, rendering, motion graphics and more. It does a good job of allowing users to add details, lighting, colors and other effects to 3D models. The user interface is intuitive, allowing users to create and manipulate models in an efficient approach.

#2 NUKE

OS: Windows, Mac, and Linux

Video Compositing Software For Mac Free

Price: $4,758 for NUKE, $8,853 for NUKE X and $10,248 for NUKE Studio

It is a VFX and compositing software program available for multiple platforms. There are three editions: NUKE, NUKE X and NUKE Studio. It’s a powerful tool coming with great tools for compositing, rotoscoping, particle effects and more. The industry standard compositing software has support for 2D and 3D. Professionals will benefit from its considerable amount of visual effects capabilities. NUKE is node based, which makes it very efficient especially make it comes to big projects.

#3 Autodesk 3ds Max

OS: Windows

Price: $195/month, $1,545/year, or $4170/3 years

This powerful versatile visual effect software tool is designed for 3D modeling, animation, and rendering and is widely used in industries like architecture, design and video games. It excels at 3D modeling for both characters and objects and offers high performance when it comes to rendering. With it, users can expect high level of reality and detail of their works. For new users, it can be a bit difficult to learn. As one gets more experienced, one can explore endless possibility and make the most of this tool.

#4 Cinema 4D

OS: Windows, Mac, and Linux

Price: $59/month, billed annually

As one of the most popular visual effects software programs, Cinema 4D is widely used for organic and non-organic modeling, animation, rendering and other VFX tasks. It is commonly used in design, graphic design, animation, broadcast and other industries and is easily one of the best providers of 3D modeling and rendering solutions. In addition, it’s also good at creating animations with impressive textures. Compared with some other VFX software, this one is very easy to learn. It offers a lot of useful plugins, which can make your work easy.

#5 Houdini

OS: Windows, Mac, and Linux

Price: Free and commercial versions

When it comes to visual effect software, we can’t ignore Houdini. It is used by many big VFX companies such as Pixar and DreamWorks Animation. There are six versions, which makes the pricing a bit complicated. The free version is called Houdini Apprentice. It’s free for non-commercial use only. Designed to be a visual effects and 3D animation tool, Houdini has been widely used in filmmaking video games production. The node-word workflow makes it popular among VFX professionals.

Free Compositing Software

3 free open-source visual effects software

Commercial VFX software often comes with high price. The good news is that there are also some free, open-source alternatives.

#1 Blender

OS: Windows, macOS, Linux, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, NetBSD, DragonFly BSD and Haiku

Despite being free, Blender is powerful and versatile. It provides rich sets of tools for visual effects, 3D modeling, ragging, simulation, compositing, vide editing and match moving other tasks. It offers a complete set of tools for any type of 3D tasks. One of the great things is that you can download templates online and use them for your projects in Blender. Compared to most other VFX software, it’s relatively small and lightweight. In addition, it’s very customizable and flexible.

#2 Blackmagic Fusion

OS: Linux, macOS, Windows

This VFX compositing software program has a free version and a commercial version. It has been used in the productions of tons of Hollywood big movies such as Iron Man and 2012. Despite being free, the free version allows you to use it for commercial projects. It excels at visual effects, virtual reality and motion graphic tasks. Just like some similar visual effects software, it’s node based, which allows high flexibility.

#3 Natron

OS: Linux, macOS, FreeBSD, Windows

Free, open-source and node-based, this freeware visual effects tool is easily accessible and easy to use. If you are a Nuke user, you will find its interface very similar to that of Nuke. It offers a number of functionalities for video tracking, keying, rotoscoping and keyframe animation. In addition, you will also find basic tools for image editing and painting.

Conclusion

If you are new to VFX and want to create a video or short film full of cool effects with the least efforts, you can use Filmora, the best video editor with special effects. You can do amazing video editing and compositing without leaving the app. It offers a great number of basic and advanced features and tools for all users. Most visual effects software programs are powerful, versatile and expensive. Thanks to the free open-source alternatives, everyone can have the opportunity to dive into the world of VFX.

Phillips, Nina

Wondershare Filmora Review: All Details and Alternatives (2020)

It’s not a surprise why many people look for dedicated video editing software. As we already know, video marketing is [...]

Motion
Developer(s)Apple Inc.
Stable release
5.4.5 / December 10, 2019; 7 months ago[1]
Operating systemmacOS 10.14.6 or later
Size2.3 GB
TypeCompositing/Visual Effects/Animation
LicenseProprietary
WebsiteApple: Motion

Motion is a software application produced by Apple Inc. for their macOSoperating system. It is used to create and edit motion graphics, titling for video production and film production, and 2D and 3D compositing for visual effects.

History[edit]

The original product, codenamed 'Molokini,' was previewed at a NAB event on April 19, 2004.

Version 1.0 was made available on August 11, 2004.[2]

At a pre-NAB event in April 2005, Apple released Motion 2 along with new revisions of the other Pro applications, optimised for the Power Mac G5 and Mac OS X 10.4.Features introduced in Motion 2:[3]

  • 32-bit Rendering
  • Replicators
  • New filters
  • MIDI behavior
  • After Effects integration

In January 2006 Apple stopped selling Motion as a stand-alone product. Introduced at NAB in Las Vegas on April 15, 2007, Motion 3 was included as part of the Final Cut Studio 2 suite.Features introduced in Motion 3:[4]

  • 3D multiplane environment - 2.5D compositing
  • 3D text behaviors
  • Vector-based paint strokes
  • Point tracking and match moving
  • Image stabilization and SmoothCam
  • Synchronized Audio behavior
  • Dynamic retiming behaviors
  • Advanced Keyframe Editor - keyframe pen tool, transform box
  • Final Cut Pro integration - Motion 3 master templates

Motion 4 was introduced on July 23, 2009.[5]New features included:[6]

  • 3D Shadows
  • 3D Reflections
  • Depth of Field
  • Credit Rolls
  • Adjust Glyph tool
  • Parameter Link behavior
  • Camera framing
  • Improved Sequence Text behavior, plus new presets
  • New text generators
  • New graphics generators
  • New filters
  • Multi-touch gesture support
  • ProRes 4444 support
  • Background export

Motion 5 was introduced on June 21, 2011.[7] It is available through the Mac App Store at a reduced price of $49.99. Motion 5 is now sold as a stand-alone product.New features:

  • Final Cut Pro X plugin generation
  • Parameter rigs
  • New keyer
  • 64-bit architecture

Motion 5.2 was released on April 13, 2015.New features:[8]

  • 3D text
  • New generators
  • Improved shapes
  • Improved keyframing

Motion 5.3 was released on October 27, 2016.[9]

  • Wide colour
  • Improved Link parameter behavior
  • New Align To behavior
  • Improved 3D text

Motion 5.4 was released on December 14, 2017 with new features:[10]

  • 360 VR motion graphics support
  • The ability to switch a current Motion document to be a Motion project, Final Cut Pro generator, Final Cut Pro title, Final Cut Pro effect, or Final Cut Pro transition
  • New Overshoot animation behavior
  • New filters for different photographic looks
  • Import, playback, and editing of HEVC video clips and HEIF photos.
  • Faster optical flow analysis

Motion 5.4.1 was released on April 9, 2018.[11]New feature:

  • ProRes RAW
  • Bug fixes

Motion 5.4.2 was released on November 15, 2018.New features:[12]

  • Advanced color grading
  • Comic filter
  • Tiny Planet filter - for displaying 360° spherical video in non-360° projects
  • Bug fixes - including use of Core Text engine for improved display of non-roman text

Motion 5.4.3 was released on March 21, 2019.New feature:[13]

  • Post-macOS Mojave media compatibility checker

See also a release history in context with the rest of Final Cut Studio.

Market position[edit]

Motion is a motion graphics and compositing application similar in some ways to After Effects and Nuke. With version 3, Apple added 3D compositing, vector paint, and motion tracking to Motion's toolbox. This added power, plus the GPU accelerated nature of Motion, allows it to be seen as an alternative to those packages for titling and simple animation projects.

Features[edit]

Video Effects Software For Mac

Features of Motion include the ability to create custom particle effects (as well as using pre-built ones) and to add filters, effects and animations in real time. Motion has the ability to address up to 32 GB of RAM and GPU acceleration at 8-bit, 16-bit and 32-bit float color depths. Motion 2 can also integrate with a MIDI keyboard, so that parameters can be controlled by keys or faders; this opens up the possibility of real time parameter input into Motion. In addition Motion 3 now allows for complete 2D and 3D compositing in a multiplane environment.

Behaviors[edit]

As well as supporting traditional keyframe animation, Motion introduced a system of pre-set 'behaviors' which can be combined to create realistic animations. For instance, the 'throw' behaviour will move an object across the screen. Combined with the 'gravity' behavior, it will simulate a realistic arc of motion. The effects can be tweaked utilizing various parameters, varying the strength of the bounces, the amount of gravity to apply and so on.

This is very different from traditional animation software, which requires the use of keyframes to determine the position of an object at any given time. Such software then automatically creates motion to fill the spaces between the keyframes. This makes it easy to know exactly where objects are on the screen at any given time, but it is considerably more difficult to create realistic animations that build up on different, conflicting forces.[14]

The Replicator and Particle Emitters[edit]

Video Effects Software Mac

In Version 2 a new 'replicator' function was introduced, which allows an object to be replicated to create a repeating pattern of a specified size and shape. With this tool, it is possible to create animations in which the elements of a replicated pattern move in sequence.

'Particle emitters' allow the user to set a pre-drawn shape to rapidly generate copies of itself and emit them across the screen. The direction and intensity can be adjusted, and combined with behaviors to create very complex animations quickly and easily. For example, a particle emitter used in conjunction with a star shape and the 'vortex' behaviour would animate a circle of swirling stars.

The H.U.D.[edit]

Motion features a floating semi-transparent window ('heads-up display', or HUD) which displays the most commonly altered parameters of the object or effect currently selected. This allows the user to make quick adjustments without having to search through palettes and menus. However, exact numerical values cannot be entered in this window. For more precise editing, consult the Inspector window.

Tools[edit]

Motion has the following tools available for the creation or manipulation of graphics on the canvas:

  • Anchor point - each object has an 'anchor point' that acts as the centre of rotation or enlargement.
  • Four Corner, which changes the perspective of objects.
  • Bézier curve adjustment
  • Rectangle, ellipse, Bézier curve and B-spline creation tools.
  • The text tool.
  • Rectangle, ellipse, Bézier and B-spline masking tools (which define the part of an object that is visible).

These tools can be accessed from the toolbar at the top of the screen or with keyboard commands.

Recording[edit]

Recording is used for adjusting an object over a specific amount of time by placing and manipulating keyframes. The recording button is a red dot button adjacent to the play/pause features. When the button is selected, it lights up red and the dot turns white. Any adjustments made when the button is selected are saved as keyframes. Keyframes act as placeholders that solidify an object's characteristics at a single frame (anything from position and rotation to cropping and size). Using multiple recordings, an object shall reorient itself between the two keyframes to match each set characteristics. Recording can act as an alternative to movement behaviors that allow more in-depth adjustments.

How Motion works[edit]

Motion uses pixel shaders which move the processing of video effects to the Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) of a modern graphics card. Motion is also compatible with Apple's Core Image technology, allowing one to use the Image Units that come standard with Mac OS X Tiger. Like pixel shaders, Core Image 'stacks' various effects, allowing a number of effects to be combined together without slow-down. A faster graphics card improves performance. Motion is also the first Pro App to introduce FxPlug Apple's plug-in architecture that allows for GPU acceleration.

In Motion, users import their own graphics files and use pre-prepared graphics such as text and shapes. Objects can be grouped into layers, but they always retain their own distinct identity. These various parts are then grouped into a single layer. Selecting that layer permits moving all of the objects as a single body...

Similar products[edit]

Compositing
  • Nuke – The Foundry
  • Combustion, Toxik and Smoke – Autodesk
  • Fusion – Blackmagic Design
  • Boris RED – Boris FX

While not dedicated to compositing, the open source software Blender contains a limited node-based compositing feature which, among other things is capable of basic keying and blurring effects.[15]

References[edit]

  • Wiggins, P. (August 2004). Motion 1. First review of Motion'.[1]
  • Lindsay, A. (November 2004). Motion. DV, 12, 54 – 58.[2]
  1. ^https://support.apple.com/HT202203
  2. ^'Apple - Motion'. Archive of www.apple.com. Internet Archive Wayback Machine. Archived from the original on August 11, 2004. Retrieved May 15, 2019.
  3. ^'Final Cut Studio - Motion'. Archive of www.apple.com. Internet Archive Wayback Machine. Archived from the original on May 11, 2005. Retrieved July 12, 2017.CS1 maint: BOT: original-url status unknown (link)
  4. ^'Motion 3. What's New'. Archive of www.apple.com. Internet Archive Wayback Machine. Archived from the original on March 3, 2008. Retrieved July 12, 2017.CS1 maint: BOT: original-url status unknown (link)
  5. ^'Apple press release: 'Apple Updates Final Cut Studio with More Than 100 New Features''. www.apple.com. Apple. Retrieved July 12, 2017.
  6. ^'What's new in Final Cut Studio'. Archive of www.apple.com. Internet Archive Wayback Machine. Archived from the original on May 19, 2010. Retrieved July 12, 2017.CS1 maint: BOT: original-url status unknown (link)
  7. ^'Apple press release: 'Apple Revolutionizes Video Editing With Final Cut Pro X''. www.apple.com. Apple. Retrieved July 12, 2017.
  8. ^'Apple support page: 'Motion 5 release notes''. www.apple.com. Apple. Retrieved July 12, 2017.
  9. ^'Apple press release: 'Apple releases significant update to Final Cut Pro X''. www.apple.com. Apple. Retrieved July 12, 2017.
  10. ^'Apple Releases Motion 5.4 With Support for 360 VR Motion Graphics, HEVC, More'. www.iclarified.com. iClarified. Retrieved April 30, 2018.
  11. ^'Apple press release: 'Final Cut Pro X update introduces ProRes RAW and advanced closed captioning''. www.apple.com. Apple. Retrieved May 15, 2019.
  12. ^'Apple support page: 'Motion 5 release notes''. www.apple.com. Apple. Retrieved May 15, 2019.
  13. ^'Apple support page: 'Motion 5 release notes''. www.apple.com. Apple. Retrieved May 15, 2019.
  14. ^Site, Stockko. 'Apple Motion Templates'. stockko.com. Retrieved May 31, 2020.
  15. ^'Blender features page'. Retrieved March 19, 2011.

External links[edit]

Motion graphics and animation software
2D3DMix
Open-source
Closed-sourceFreeware
  • Clara.io, Daz Studio
Commercial
Discontinued / Legacy
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