Motion X performance issue

[namethisfile]

Hi,

I have the suite of Apple Pro X apps, including Motion X. I have been playing around with Motion X for my own projects and for my own education. My question is regarding performance issues when I work on a Motion Project with multiple layers and doing some animation using the Shape Tool to essentially animate a line drawing. So, a drawing happening in real-time being drawn on the screen. The performance issue happens once I have added a few layers and the project is no longer able to playback smoothly. There is also significant lag drawing on the canvas using the paint tool at this time. I guess my question is, what can I do to improve performance? Is my machine just inadequate for certain complex Motion X projects?

Specs on my macs:

2011 Mac Mini 2.7 i7 dual-core, AMD HD6630m gpu, 8 GB RAM using firewire Lacie D2

mid-201015" MBP, 2.6 i7 dual-core, GTX 330m gpu, 8 GB RAM via firewire Lacie D2

PS: performance issue is the same with the MBP

Thanks.

PSS: will a quad-core iMac or MBP help?

[ezekielrage_99]

I have a 2011 i7 Mac Mini (16GB, 256GB SSD, installed by myself), Motion 5 works like a dream after I put a fast HDD in it because it does seems to cache a fair bit back to the HDD.

Personally I wouldn't bother updating to a new MBP (it's expensive unless you're looking to consolidate hardware) though I would recommend maxing out the RAM and install an SSD, the price of RAM and a good SSD is pretty good now. From experience with Motion is far more responsive when running with an SSD, I'm currently using for supers/idents for broadcast weather graphics.

I'd recommend checking the settings in Motion, ensure the cache is set to 80% memory, set from the render drop down to draft and if you turn off some of the dynamics it will improve playback when building a scene.

Since it seems as though you're working with shapes, turning off the anti-aliasing in the preview improves performance. When you're exporting you can up the quality

Hope this helps.

[namethisfile]

hey ezek,

ah, i have the settings set at default, so maybe tweaking/lowering them will help.

thanks for the tip!

yeah, otherwise, when i am not layering too much, motion x runs fine. maybe, down the road, i will look into ssd. and perhaps 8 GB sticks to max the ram to 16.

thanks again.