| Apple Pro Training Series: Motion 3 | 
 enlarge | Authors: Damian Allen, Mark Spencer, Bryce Button, Tony Huet
Publisher: Peachpit Press
Category: Book
List Price: $54.99
Buy New: $30.55
You Save: $24.44 (44%)
New (41) Used (6) from $30.55
Avg. Customer Rating:  12 reviews
Sales Rank: 36936
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 552
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.4
Dimensions (in): 9 x 7.3 x 1
ISBN: 0321509102
Dewey Decimal Number: 778.592
EAN: 9780321509109
ASIN: 0321509102
Publication Date: September 9, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
In this guide to Apple’s revolutionary motion graphics software, commercial artists Damian Allen, Bryce Button, and Mark Spencer teach you to create cutting-edge animations, show opens, promos, logos, and effects while you learn Motion 3. As with the other titles in the Apple Pro Training Series, each chapter represents a complete lesson with a commercial-quality project to work through as you learn. The authors begin with generators and quickly move on to Motion’s behavior-based animations, particles, filters, effects, replicator, tracking, and matchmoving. The best-selling book is fully revised to take advantage of the software’s new features: you’ll create sophisticated 3D environments, design painterly elements using customizable brushes and strokes, automatically create motion paths from moving images without tedious frame-by-frame keyframing, remove camera shake, and animate text with 3D effects. Includes companion DVD with project and media files.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 7 more reviews...
Decent starter's guide to Motion December 1, 2008
I just worked through the entire book over the long weekend. There are definitely some major typos that suggest the wrong keyboard shortcut (and therefore unintended effect), but if you were paying attention earlier in the lesson, you should be able to figure out "Oh, he meant Shift-Cmd-drag, not Opt-Cmd-drag..." or "Uh, he never talked about the Far Fade parameter, so he must mean the Far Plane parameter..." Still, the proofreading / testing needed some work.
At no point did I just flat-out get stuck because of a problem with the lessons or anything like that, though I found it a bit tedious at times when the book would (in the spirit of encouraging you to try different filters, etc) say something like, "Step 10: Try this filter. Step 11: Undo that filter. Step 12: Now try another filter. Step 13: Okay, just kidding. Undo." I could see how if you weren't super careful, you will lose track of which effect to undo, and ultimately end up with elements that make your project mismatch what's in the book. I imagine the "If you have fallen behind, open sample_mid-project23.motn" instructions were supposed to help with this kind of stuff, but I actually never needed it.
Definitely wish there were more examples/lessons. This book was a decent start, but I want more, especially to distinguish this book's lessons from the Motion projects in Apple Pro Training Series: Motion Graphics and Effects in Final Cut Studio 2!
 an acceptable introduction, needs proof reading September 10, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I struggled with whether to give this a 2 or 3 star rating...
Motion is a big beast with lots of complexity and I wasn't expecting for an introductory book to give me a complete view. This book did do a good job of surveying Motion. The examples/samples are generally pretty interesting.
However, I have similar comments to the other reviewers here...
1. The binding is bad. I am very careful with my books. I went through the book once and on opening it within a few days to refer to a section, the back half detached from the cover.
2. There are many errors in the book. When this happened, I would assume I had missed something and would then go back, restart the example and carefully follow ALL of the instructions. The bulk of the time, the error was in missing steps or in reversed steps. I think I remember a good half a dozen errors like this. (To the authors' credit, they have put in some helpful tips like 'if BLAH happens, remember to do BLAH' or 'don't forget to BLAH'.)
The other PeachPit Press Apple Pro Training books that I have gone through are very good - excellent really. When I got through those, I really felt prepared and able to use the tool. This one does not live up to those standards - book physical quality and proof reading and preparation for use of the tool. Again, beyond those issues, I would have liked a more detailed book giving me a deeper understanding to Motion but I understand the difficulty of that.
The book works acceptably as a survey of the tool, just don't get too frustrated by the errors.
 Excellent Manual August 13, 2008
This is a great book for anyone that wants to learn how to use Motion. I don't have any complaints. There are 14 ch.'s that cover every aspect of the program. After going through the chapters it's amazing what you can create from scratch in a matter of minutes or even seconds! I don't think Motion will be taking over After Effects but it can do some things better and faster than After Effects can.
I recommend this book to anyone that wants to learn an excellent motion graphics program!
This is a great book April 9, 2008
Now that Motion has 3D and doesn't crash, I thought, what the heck, I'll learn it. This book is great. Motion is a much deeper graphics app than I ever gave it credit for. I used to look at it as a big plug-in with some nifty effects. This book changed that thinking. It got me to stop tinkering with the program and really use it in production. I tend to loath step by step tutorials, but this book uses them well and does not forget to teach a broad understanding of the topics. So, no, it's not at all like following a recipe, it definitely teaches, reinforces (they do a great job repeating short cut keys) and leaves me feeling like a super power user wizard. Chapters are concise, projects are real world (sorry no flying saucer tutorials in this one) and its one of the few training books that I actually read cover to cover. Kudos and thanks to the writers!
Apple has a true competitor in the compositing market with Motion 3.0 March 1, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Apple Motion 3.0 is a true 3-D compositing masterpiece. It may not overtake Adobe After Effects CS3 Professional [Mac] or Apple Shake 4.1 Visual Effects (Mac) yet, but with a refined yet straightforward interface it is possible to do amazing things. But how can you learn to use it? Enter Apple Pro Training Series: Motion 3.0. This book starts from scratch, yet by the end (if you really study) your ready to take the Apple Certified User test for Motion. This looks great on a resumé.
Seriously, you can really learn to do compositing with this training book. If you are creative enough you can do most everything that After Effects can do, and once you get really good, pick up After Effects or Shake and really go crazy.
If you have ever read an Apple Pro Training book, you know that each chapter is a complete lesson. Just put a bookmark in it and come back when you get off work. Even if you get lost, most lessons have updated project file available mid-way through to pick up where you left off.
If you own Motion, or want to learn compositing you are required to get this book. Just go ahead and buy it, you will not be disappointed.
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