Is Cavalry the After Effects killer we didn't know we were waiting for? 5
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James Burns

2 things.

Was there a link to the developers site? I didn’t notice one.

also, I got all excited until I saw it was rental software. I want to buy my software.

Scott Simmons

There is a link in there now.

Allan Barnwell

I remember feeling like I “owned” the software I bought. It was a very convenient software model for the end user. I also enjoyed ripping DVDs with mp3’s I’d download off Napster. Alas, those days are gone.

Allan Barnwell

Sorry – “CDs”. I ripped DVDs with movies I stole elsewhere…

BIngle Banglethrope

Stilll doesn’t really make sense

Chris O'Dowd

An AE ‘killer’ will hopefully be opensource(see Blender)

Alex Gollner ⧜

I don’t think new applications need to ‘kill’ old applications. Don’t think in terms of ‘or’, it should be ‘and.’ If you don’t use After Effects and Motion (or Cavalry) you are limiting yourself as a creative person. If you are happy with using After Effects to implement ideas you already have, it will do. If you would like also an application that doesn’t slow you down while you explore your creativity, then don’t limit yourself to the core of a monoculture.

Monocultures are comforting. Everyone knows what application to rent. What application to learn. Who to hire based on how well they know that application. Which application makes you ‘a professional’. The application that makes someone ‘one of us.’ The one that if you don’t use means you aren’t a ‘proper’ professional.

They are also damaging. The developer is stuck with a single way of thinking. Nearly all improvements, requests and features maintain the monoculture. Few advance the culture’s creativity. When asked to coming up with new ideas, designers immediately think in terms of what the monoculture application can do. Their minds run on rails down the same tracks. Sometimes diverting by a few centimetres because of the features of the current fashionable plugin, but still returning down the same old tracks that have been around for over 20 years.

The creative/play stage shouldn’t be about hitting a target down the the fractional x,y,z co-ordinate. Play can’t happen when you hold back on your ideas because of the need to wait for each variation that might cross your mind. Creativity is replaced with applying a solution from a well-worn sheaf of recipe-like solutions.

Sadly the success of Cavalry (or Motion, if Apple starts acting like it cares about it as a motion graphics application) will be the result of a balance of fear. The fear of not being good at using a new application vs. fear of losing money. If enough people are worried that they will lose work from competitors who will be better placed because of their knowledge of modern GPU-based animation, they will break through the barrier of not being a master of an application they are using. For some this will be a barrier to break down over a few weeks or months. For others it might take longer.

The fear grows the longer you have used the monoculture application. Let’s hope there’ll be people who will help break the damaging monoculture that has been holding back the art of motion graphics for years.

I too started using After Effects 3.1 in 1997.

sam

Hi there,

I almost stopped reading at “then you’re doing your mograph in After Effects”… Fortunately I went on 😉

I indeed never ever considered AE as a must have (at all), and keep on thinking PS and AI (with a bit of ID and PP now that FCP7 let room for it) are the real industry standards of Adobe. The real strength of AE is its huge users base (but you know, there are more Ford users than Maseratis 😉 ), but I personally think it cannot compete with node based apps anyway.

This also the reason it’s not used by the real industry (cf those who work with Maya, Nuke etc…) for serious projects and remains in the middle projects ballyard…

So I’ll keep on using Fusion – which hammers AE in anything imho – at 85% and a bit Motion for some 15% handy personal reasons.

PS : for those who needs further explanations or just like to tackle AE users for fun :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKQIN7hZt3I

Log live to Cavalry anyway !

Sam

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