What can Motion handle?

Go on YouTube. Plenty on 'Motion"

 

Yes, there is no trial for Motion

Motion is just a little bit below after effects, but much cheaper.
It handles 3d cameras, motion graphics and text of course. it also integrates well with Final Cut Pro X.

Once you learn the basics you can make very interesting things with it.

I use it and I like it. Adobe AfterEffects is more powerful especially since it integrates well with all other Adobe Products.

Both are used by Pros (which I´m not)

 

It can handle pretty much what you understand you can throw at it. I've done really complicated pieces in After Effects that I could have done in Motion. I've done really complicated pieces in Motion, that I would have had a bit more control over in After Effects. After Effects reigns supreme, but for probably 80-90% of what AE can do, Motion comes very close.

 

Yes, Motion is surprisingly powerful, and if you are used to iMovie it will be enough for you for quite some time. But to answer your question:

Fluid simulations are very, very far from simple. Especially multiphase flows like this one (two colours). You will not be able to do this kind of thing in either After Effects or Motion. You will need an expensive and seriously complicated 3D rendering software with a good physics engine, like Maya, Smoke, Cinema4D, or 3ds Max. You could try the free Blender, which is very powerful and can do fluid simulations, and believe me, you will quickly find that these types of programs have a very steep learning curve.

I don't want to discourage you, I just want to warn you: Simulating liquids on a computer is a real pain, and many professionals try to avoid it if possible.

 

colored liquids

sounds like you need high end software and a workstation to handle it.
If you want something like the Hannibal series opening titles you are in for a lot of work.

3DS max has some nice tools like ICE, but it runs only on Windows.
Maya is good and I think the 2014 version has improved Fluid and Cloth tools.

The software can be downloaded as a trial and if you are a student you
get a nice price.

Blender is free and quite powerful.But as floh said - prepare for a steep learning curve.

Later on you need a compositing tool like AfterEffects (or Motion).
For my taste AE is easier in sense of being more intuitive.

 

Yeah, neither After Effects nor Motion can do fluid simulation. There's a plugin called "Particular" for After Effects that can do some fluid-looking smoke and energy type effects, but it certainly doesn't flow like fluid (i.e. run into things, etc.)

The standard workflow for fluids in motion graphics is:
Simulate in RealFlow > export animated mesh to Cinema 4D, texture and render > import rendered image sequence into After Effects for compositing with other footage elements.

I just finished a big project with lots of fluid simulations interacting with animated 3D objects, and it's sort of fun, but also not really...