After effects vs Fusion | Which one is Better

in today's video we're gonna compare two popular VFX software this time it will be after effects and fusion we will look at their similarities as well as their differences to discover which one is better suited for your needs and what you will do with them so without further Ado let's Jump Right In first of all we're gonna talk about the user interface the user interface of After Effects and fusion look pretty similar at First Sight if you are experienced in video editing software you will feel right at home they both contain a main workspace and a side panel for secondary tools such as color correction the first core difference is that after effects gives you a lot of customization abilities and you can adjust the interface to your liking unlike Fusion where customization is still possible but very limited the second key distinction in user interface is that Fusion has a bottom panel for nodes whereas After Effects has one for layers with a timeline which will go over later in the video but for now let's look at the industries they are used in both After Effects and fusion are used in a lot of different Industries and they can be used in different areas within the same post-production pipeline starting with VFX compositing Motion Graphics topography and even video editing After Effects is the industry standard for 2D Motion Graphics and 2D animation in general while Fusion on the other hand leans more towards VFX compositing it can also be used for 3D Motion Graphics or even VR due to its rendering abilities as we said both are used in the same Industries and both can be used as one solution toolbox or package but I would say after effects is more versatile because it is more used for example in 2D animation and motion graphics compared to Fusion so because of their different tool set each one is more specialized in a particular field where the other doesn't so now let's take a deeper look at their similarity and differences if you are not familiar with either after effects or Fusion you need to keep in mind that after effects is a layer based software and fusion is node based which has a huge impact on which one you will choose players are more straightforward making it more easy to learn for beginners especially if you are already familiar with video editing software and tools whereas nodes are much more difficult to master unless you have experience with other node based 3D software like Houdini or blender for example being layer based makes it more optimized to do Motion Graphics but it can give you headaches in VFX compositing as for nodes despite being a little bit harder it is still very possible to learn and master even though it may take some time for you to get used to it in fact when you get used to it it will be hard for you to go back to using layers this is the case because it offers great functionality for VFS compositing which we'll discuss next in general both After Effects and fusion are good when it comes to post-production work and can produce excellent results however the non-based workflow infusion makes it easier to composite and edit complex scenes plus it is much more flexible unlike After Effects because dealing with a stack of layers and pre-comps is far more confusing nodes also provide much more precision and control in compositing making it far more powerful another area where Fusion has an advantage is 3D compositing which allows you to combine 2D footage and 3D elements in the infinite 3D workspace as well as the ability to render add lights and so on providing yet another Edge and competitive Advantage compared to After Effects but Adobe started incorporating this in the recent After Effects updates so it is something to keep an eye on and maybe they can catch up to Fusion one day maybe who knows with a general comparison out of the way let's now take a look at some tools After Effects includes all the standard compositing tools which can be found in the right side panel most notably a collection of blurs color correction tools a bunch of keywords for green screen removal some stylization effects like glow and a bit more at the bottom we have the camera tracker a Content aware film tool and at the top it also includes masking tools blending modes mats and so on Fusion on the other hand has note versions of similar facts for example a variety of player nodes such as directional blur node glow nodes color nodes like the color corrector node and many keywords trackers blending modes and so on you all the necessary tools for compositing now we're gonna jump to something else which is tracking foreign facts and fusion are good when it comes to tracking whether it be 2D or 3D tracking although After Effects native tracking tools are a hit or miss sometimes especially when compared to Fusion it includes Airline system mocha an award-winning tracking tool that comes for free inside After Effects which is very good and easy to use but in Fusion you have more flexibility with how you can use the tracking data due to having a node system nonetheless both are good options for tracking depending on what you will need and your preferences next we're gonna take a look at color correction tools in after a fact has some color management issues and you may struggle a little bit in getting image colors to look right but it can be still decent it provides all the essential color correction tools such as saturation highlights and shadows just like Photoshop or Premiere however Fusion is still far better because it provides greater precision and features such as native automatic color matching Tools in addition to other stuff so Fusion wins in this area but after effects can still do the job on the other hand when it comes to masking both After Effects and fusion have similar masking tools such as a pen tool a feather tool and Chevron but in Fusion you have a lot of mask nodes giving you a lot more mask types and features and with the note system it makes it faster to organize and apply changes to your masks without having to go through all the hassles of opening and closing various precomps alternatively both provide automatic masking alternatives rotobras for example for After Effects and Magic mask for Fusion which allows you to automatically separate elements from the background without using manual masks which is really handy now with that out of the way let's look at what we have when it comes to third-party development when it comes to third-party support after effects significantly outperforms Fusion in fact it is one of the most rich software when it comes to add-ons or plugins this is the case because it has a large number of good plugins and scripts available through various markets as opposed to fusion and even though Fusion has good third-party developers it is still not as big as After Effects their plugins Community is nowhere near the size of After Effects which make it desirable in many tasks when it comes to the hardware side I mean whether it be CPU or GPU accelerated generally speaking the majority of the basic tools infusion and after effects are executed on the CPU however they both have a fact that can be accelerated by the GPU and it can boost the performance especially if you are working with the resolution higher than 4K keep in mind that the results will vary depending on the GPU manufacturer and the model you have so you have to do your research when it comes to learning and stuff for beginners After Effects is far more accessible and easier to learn it is also more popular providing you with more online resources which is great Fusion on the other hand is much more complex I mean relatively to After Effects and has a steeper learning curve due to its node system but I believe learning it is more worth it especially if you want to get into VFX as it is a more complex software that can help you achieve higher level VFS compositing Additionally you can transition easier to Nuke which is the industry standard in VFX compositing when it comes to pricing and Licensing After Effects is a subscription-based software that can be acquired for 20 something dollars per month or bundled with other Creative Cloud apps at a lower cost they also offer a free 7 day trial when it comes to Fusion it is included for free if you purchase a dimension resolve license for 295 dollars which is a one-time payment that includes free updates it is also available for no cost I mean the free version of the visual resolve which is a bit more limited especially compared to the paid version but it is still good to a certain extent I hope you guys found this video useful and informative if you did please give it a thumbs up you can also check some of our previous videos thank you very much for watching and I will see you in the next one

Channel: InspirationTuts

Views: 41,303

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Id: N6_jZ-p_Stw

Length: 10min 11sec (611 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 02 2023