Apple Motion
Magnetic Mask isolates people and objects, and machine learning tracks faces and objects.
Apple's motion graphics app for Mac, building titles, transitions and effects for Final Cut Pro.
- Starting price
- $49.99
- Free trial
- 30-day free trial for new Apple Creator Studio subscribers
- Output
- Titles, transitions and effects in 2D, 3D and 360°, published as templates to Final Cut Pro
Overview
Motion is Apple's motion graphics app for the Mac, used to design 2D, 3D and 360° titles, transitions and effects in real time. It is aimed at video editors who work in Final Cut Pro and want animated graphics that go beyond the built-in templates. It is a one-time purchase from the Mac App Store and is also included in the Apple Creator Studio subscription.
Our take
Pick Motion when the edit already lives in Final Cut Pro and the missing piece is a custom title, lower third or transition that the editor can reuse and adjust. Its value sits in that round trip, so a Premiere editor is better served by After Effects instead. For heavy compositing of CG and plates across a team, a node-based tool such as Nuke is the right fit rather than Motion. If you already pay for Apple Creator Studio, Motion is included; otherwise the one-time price is low enough to buy it for a single project.
Key Facts
| Category | |
|---|---|
| Starting price | $49.99 One-time purchase from the Mac App Store. Also included in Apple Creator Studio at $12.99 a month or $129 a year, with Final Cut Pro, Logic Pro, Pixelmator Pro, Compressor and MainStage. |
| Free trial | 30-day free trial for new Apple Creator Studio subscribers |
| Output | Titles, transitions and effects in 2D, 3D and 360°, published as templates to Final Cut Pro |
| API | FxPlug plug-ins |
| Hosting | Desktop app for Mac |
Screenshots
Placeholders. They are replaced as soon as the vendor sends material, and both open the same short form.
Features
- Inputs
- Footage and stills, SVG files that scale without losing sharpness, USDZ 3D objects and 360° media, plus Cinematic mode footage from Final Cut Camera, whose focus points and depth of field can be adjusted. No video is generated from a prompt
- Timeline and editing
- A layer and keyframe timeline for building motion graphics rather than cutting a programme, with controls to stagger, cascade or reverse clips. Titles, transitions and effects are saved with template controls and published to Final Cut Pro, where the edit itself happens
- Platforms
- Mac only, with 8GB of memory (16GB recommended) and a Metal-capable graphics card on Intel-based Macs. No Windows, Linux or iPad version
- Formats and codecs
- Wide-colour HDR import and export in Rec. 709 and Rec. 2020, plus SVG and USDZ import. The Media Engine on Apple silicon accelerates ProRes playback and export. No full codec list is published on the product page
- Colour grading
- Yes, through 21 Color filters, among them Color Wheels for global, shadows, midtones and highlights, Color Curves, Hue/Saturation Curves, Levels and Color Adjustments that work within HDR luminance ranges. Custom LUT applies .cube and .mga LUTs (no 1D LUTs), and HDR Tools converts between colour spaces
- Effects and motion graphics
- Over 230 behaviors such as Gravity, Throw and Vortex, more than 200 particle presets with replicators, 2D, 3D and 360° titles with over 90 3D materials, 60 premade 3D objects, cameras, dynamic shadows and reflective surfaces, masking and rotoscoping, a drag-and-drop Keying filter, and more than 130 built-in filters plus third-party FxPlug plug-ins
- Audio
- Imports WAV, AIFF, MP3 and AAC up to 192 kHz and 32 bit, in mono, stereo or multichannel. Levels per track and for the overall mix, trimming, slipping and sliding, and fades, crossfades and pans by keyframes or behaviors. Apple says it is not a full audio editing and mixing environment like Logic Pro
- Performance and output
- Real-time preview of complex graphics, built for Apple silicon and the Apple Neural Engine. The Media Engine accelerates ProRes playback and export
- Licence and pricing model
- One-time purchase from the Mac App Store, shareable with up to six family members through Family Sharing, or included in the Apple Creator Studio subscription, monthly or yearly
- AI features
- Magnetic Mask isolates people and objects without a green screen, and machine learning detects and tracks faces and objects, accelerated by the Apple Neural Engine. No video is generated from a prompt
- API
- Yes, for plug-in developers: FxPlug builds effects plug-ins for Motion and Final Cut Pro
Integrations
- Final Cut Pro
- Final Cut Camera
Deployment and Support
- Deployment
-
- On-premise
- Support
-
- Community forum
- Onboarding
-
- Documentation and knowledge base
Pros and Cons
Strengths
- Templates publish to Final Cut Pro with controls the editor can adjust
- Low one-time price, or included in Apple Creator Studio
- Behaviors such as Gravity, Throw and Vortex can be combined to animate layers
- Magnetic Mask separates subjects without a green screen
Limitations
- Runs only on Mac
- Designs graphics rather than cutting a full programme, which happens in Final Cut Pro
Pricing
-
Motion
$49.99
One-time purchase from the Mac App Store, shareable through Family Sharing.
-
Apple Creator Studio
$12.99 / month
Or $129 a year, after a 30-day free trial for new subscribers. Includes Motion, Final Cut Pro, Logic Pro, Pixelmator Pro, Compressor and MainStage.
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Alternatives and Comparisons
What users say
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