Flash vs Motion - Opinions needed quickly

[InLikeALion]

I've been contracted to do a quick, stop animation-like illustration for a tv commercial. They need it in 720x486, high quality quicktime. The producer has his own people who will be mixing with their voice over etc... so this isn't a final product, just delivery to editing/post.

It has been about 3 years since I've worked in Motion, and I'm a bit rusty. Flash CS3 is something I've worked in more recently, and know how to accomplish the rudimentary motion tweens this spot calls for. But I'm no expert in Flash, and am not sure it can render animations out as high quality QT's.

Any recommendations between the 2? I told the director that I'm rusty on all this - but it is a quick turn-around project and he didn't have any other options lined up. Thanks a lot for your opinions.

 

[Sdashiki]

Voice overs...later? I assume its narration and not lip syncing...

Does motion even do vector animations like flash can?

There would be a world of difference in the style and overall look of a Flash animation vs a Motion one.

You can make animation in any program with keyframing, even LiveType could do something.

 

[InLikeALion]

Thanks for the reply. I understand I can animate it in any keyframing application - and I've listed 2 that are my options. The question is mostly about Flash's output - can it do Quicktime with what it's animated?

A little more info on the project, to answer any questions: There is a voice over, no lipsyncing, and I have an mp3 version to cut everything to, then the editor is going to cut together the full quality audio and my QT movie.

As far as the animation - It will be rasterized psd 'parts' that get animated together. It won't take advantage of Flash's vector animation. I can't remember if Motion 2 even does vector graphics. Essentially, this is going for a stop-action with paper drawings type look.

Again, the question is mostly about Flash's ability to output what I need, and general appropriateness of each app to what I'm doing.

 

[tri3limited]

Motion is great for 3D work and im a huge fan of it but in this case the answer is clearly Flash!

Motion is great in the sense that it has loads of prebuilt behaviours that you can customise easily however as, by the sounds or it, you are using 2D images on a canvas then flash is better.

Also if you need a quick turn around you can download the Flash CS4 trial and get your work done in the 30 days! I've just done that for a website I've produced... 12 days left til the end of the trial and I'm nearly done! Perfect strategy!

 

[zephyrnoid]

Too much 'rust' in this story to be good. I rarely take on low quality, low pay, rush jobs on applications that I feel rusty on. My reputation is not rusty at all and so I'd pass or hand the job on to someone else instead. Both Motion and Flash have advanced considerably in the last 3 years but I guess with about 10-20 hrs you could scrape the rust off of your skill level and bring it back to a buff

I've been contracted to do a quick, stop animation-like illustration for a tv commercial. They need it in 720x486, high quality quicktime. The producer has his own people who will be mixing with their voice over etc... so this isn't a final product, just delivery to editing/post.

It has been about 3 years since I've worked in Motion, and I'm a bit rusty. Flash CS3 is something I've worked in more recently, and know how to accomplish the rudimentary motion tweens this spot calls for. But I'm no expert in Flash, and am not sure it can render animations out as high quality QT's.

Any recommendations between the 2? I told the director that I'm rusty on all this - but it is a quick turn-around project and he didn't have any other options lined up. Thanks a lot for your opinions.

 

[InLikeALion]

Too much 'rust' in this story to be good. I rarely take on low quality, low pay, rush jobs on applications that I feel rusty on. My reputation is not rusty at all and so I'd pass or hand the job on to someone else instead. Both Motion and Flash have advanced considerably in the last 3 years but I guess with about 10-20 hrs you could scrape the rust off of your skill level and bring it back to a buff

I agree. Not a good habit to get into. But in this economy we have to take jobs we could normally turn down.

I started the project in Flash CS3, but then switched over to Motion 2, because it was a lot more like the typical video editing environment. Also, Apple's Behaviors were much better than key-framing everything.

I'm glad I took a chance on seeing if Motion 2 would even work on my uMBP, and if I could pick it back up after a 3 year hiatus. It was such a pleasure to work with.

Thanks again for the opinions, though!