Is After Effects a Video Editing Software Like Apple FCP?

Video has a major role to play in any industry. Many times, organizations don’t have a big budget to outsource their work when they want to add stunning videos to their websites or just want to have a company presentation.

In such scenarios, companies prefer to hire skilled professionals who can work on multiple video editing software.

There are different tools that make it easier for businesses to create professional videos with the help of applications like After Effects and Final Cut Pro.

Often individuals think:

  • Which one is better?
  • What are the differences between them?
  • What they should learn Adobe After courses or Final Cut Pro courses?

To answer these questions, we have asked some of the professionals who are using these applications for a long time and thought to list down all important points for you.

Adobe After Effects - A Motion Graphics Software

It is a motion graphics program.

Now, what is motion graphics? Let's find its answer.

Meaning of Motion Graphics

As it is named `motion graphics’ means the graphics that are in motion. It is not necessary to move or animate text only text; you can also use different shapes and artwork to animate.

Benefits:

  • By the motion graphics, viewers can easily communicate with your story.
  • Very effectively you can give a message to your viewers.

What is required to be a motion graphic artist?

  • Actually it is required to have creativity if you want to create attractive motion graphics.
  • Just focus on the colors and shapes that should suit your theme.
  • If you get all the skills of making motion graphics then you can easily become a professional motion graphic artist.

Hope now it's clear to you.

Let's continue with the Adobe After Effects.

What this application is use for?

  • Visual effects (VFX)
  • Transitions
  • Title Animation
  • Animated graphics, etc.

Projects developed in Adobe After Effects can either stand-alone or can be used in Adobe Premiere projects.

It is equivalent in purpose and functionality to Apple Motion 5. This industry-standard motion graphics program is mainly used for adding animation and effects.

Let's take a look at the pros of this application.

Pros:

  • Supports both Mac and Windows OS
  • Good for adding 3D effects and compositing
  • Adobe offers great tutorials to help first-time users to get comfortable with the programs
  • Adobe After Effects can be purchased either as a single application for individuals and teams; or as part of Adobe Creative Cloud software.
  • It comes with Adobe’s Creative Cloud Subscription
  • It’s a lot more powerful when it comes to motion graphics and text.
  • Languages supported - English, China, Germany, India, Japan, Spain, France, Russia, Italy, Dutch, Portugal, Polish, Turkish, Swedish

There are always two sides to everything! Let's take a look at the cons.

Cons:

  • It’s more difficult to edit and render videos compared to Final Cut
  • The interface is not very user-friendly, making the learning curve steeper

Final Cut Pro or Apple FCP - A Video Editing Software

It is a nonlinear video editor which is used to convert raw video clips and convert them into a final video.

Its primary function is video editing.

It can involve several processes like:

  • Cutting and pasting of audio and video
  • Color correction
  • Selection of scenes from multiple takes
  • Adding title and transitions
  • Applying stylistic filters to audio-video, etc.

The program helps users edit and produce videos.

Who uses this application?

It is commonly used by professional filmmakers or individuals who want to make videos as part of their hobby.

Let's take a look at the pros.

Pros:

  • One of the pros is that the program is considered an industry standard and is easy to use.
  • FCP comes with good documentation and a knowledgeable user base, so it’s easy to find a solution if you are facing any issues with the application.
  • Final Cut Pro X has integration features with Apple Motion 5
  • Language supported - English, China, Germany, Japan, Spain, France
  • Offers a single pricing license for all users

Cons:

  • It’s only available for Mac devices
  • It’s a little bit more expensive than other editing programs.
  • Only basic compositing is possible with Final Cut Pro

Still, confuse between video editing software and motion graphic software?

Don't worry, we will discuss below how both the applications are different from each other on the basis of their uses.

Use of Adobe After Effects

Composting

Compositing is a well-known technique that is used by composers. In this technique, compositors add different visuals in one frame to make something different.

Motion graphics

With the help of different shapes and colors, motion graphic artists make attractive motion graphics. They can be simple or fancy. It totally depends on the theme of your project.

Animation

Animation is used everywhere these days. In this application, you can make title animation and logo animation.

White board animation

It is a technique by which you can draw anything on a whiteboard. It should look like a drawing is created with the marker.

Visual effects

Visual effects work as special effects. You can make anything realistic looking. Anything imagery can be converted into realistic things by this process.

Uses of Final Cut Pro:

Video editing

You can simply edit videos in the application. The advantage of using this software for video editing is that you can edit short and long videos easily. Video editing is done everywhere. Like you can edit videos for YouTube, films and televisions.

Song mashups

Creating song mashups is in trend nowadays. People really like to listen & watch song mashups which are created with the arrangement of different songs. Many effects and transitions are there in Apple FCP which can be used in mashups.

Audio mixing

Audio is a very important part of any output video. Having good audio in video creates more interest to the viewers. You can add too many audios together to make a good output video. There are too many audio channels and audio mixers in this software which help in adjusting the tunes and audios.

Color correction

In this application you can do basic color correction. There are four ways by which you can color correct your video. Four ways are color board, color wheel, color curve, hue/saturation curve.

Teasers

We can say that teasers have become the highlighted part of the video or movie. By the teaser, viewers can identify some concepts of the story. You can either make a wedding teaser or a movie teaser.

So, from the above list of pros, cons, and uses for both the applications, we can conclude that Adobe After Effects is not a motion graphics software like Apple FCPX.

We can compare Adobe Premiere Pro with Final Cut Pro X as it one of the popular and industry-standard software offers a different set of features, depending upon what is your requirement.

So, if you're doing lots of video editing, go with Final Cut Pro or Adobe Premiere Pro.

Know Why Premiere Pro is Popular than Final Cut Pro?

But if you are looking for pro-level compositing, motion graphics then After Effects is the way to go and it is an efficient and elegant program for this choice.

To attain in-depth understanding of Adobe After Effects and Final Cut Pro joining advanced video editing courses from renowned training institute is highly recommended.

One such institute is Post Production Institute which imparts professional training of Adobe After Effects courses and Final Cut Pro courses with live projects training by industry experts.

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