I am, sadly, addicted to Apples Final Cut Pro suite of professional editing software. Some of it I simply need to use everyday, such as Final Cut Pro the movie editor, some, such as Color, I’m slightly scared of. Others like Motion, the motion graphics editor, I’m in awe of and find myself scratching it’s surface every so often desperate to understand it’s incredibly hidden and complex depths. The fact I can only think in 2D doesn’t help either I guess 🙂
My first memory of motion graphics, although I didn’t they were called that at the time, was the original and colourful Channel 4 TV logo. This was composed of multi-coloured bricks that spun in 3D space. I had seen nothing like it and it amazed and transfixed me. I later learnt it was probably created on some hideously expensive and complicated Quantel system, and it’s only been recently that such capability has come to the average Joe. And wow, it’s brilliant. I could tinker with titles, FX and 3D swoops and pans all day long. I lurk around motion graphics forums and see amazing things that people do with shadows, light and reflections. Much of this is beyond me as yet, but here’s a recently completed example – the 80eight logo, spinning in 3D space as my own personal homage to the C4 logo of all those years ago.
80:8 Moving | Still | Blog 