February 2025 Release

Upgraded app, upgraded tools, upgraded workflow, upgraded future.

A new platform

Motion has been in progress for over a decade now, so we have been packing new tools, features, and preferences in this little extension panel, and over the years, it started to feel like a fine line between adding new helpful features that users want and also trying to not over clutter the screens. With Motion Studio, we restructured how we're going to be building out these extensions and animation tools.

Motion Studio Application

To host all tools, manage extensions, and view and edit libraries, we have created the Motion Studio Application. This standalone application serves as the main hub from which you can start your animation project. It consists of the following pages:

• Extensions: We broke out Motion into multiple panels so we can start building more feature-rich extensions to improve your workflow in every stage of the animation process. The Extensions page is where you install, update, and manage all extensions. Here, you’ll find new extensions for After Effects, Premiere Pro, Illustrator, and other programs, ready to install as soon as they become available.

• Library: Managing colors and easings well is crucial for a coherent style between projects. The Library page makes it easy to see all your palettes and easing libraries, make edits, and share them with your colleagues, so your style is always consistent.

• Mini Library: Motion Mini, one of the new panels (more on this later), is a very powerful addition to your workflow. On the Mini Library page, you'll see all of your Minis, and you can click on them to make adjustments to the tools that you are using or add new tools with different parameters.

• Resolve Easing: We’ve had tons of requests over the years to bring our tools to DaVinci Resolve, and we’re finally taking the first step! The Resolve Easing page is our way of exploring new programs and expanding Motion beyond its original setup. With this tool, you can create smooth animation curves with more precision, making it easier than ever to get natural motion inside DaVinci Resolve.

• Preferences: More extensions mean more preferences, and this means more places to go to and adjust. We have bundled all extension preferences together on the Preferences page so you can change everything in one place

Motion Studio is packed with features, actions, overlays, and information, and you can read a more in-depth view on our guide page.

Extension panels

As mentioned above, we've split Motion into multiple panels. This highly requested feature allows you to open up Color, Easing, and Focus side by side, all in different panels. Isolated extensions also mean that we can build unique features for that panel and optimize a specific part of your workflow. Of course, the full Motion Studio extension is still available for when you want to use all tools in one panel.

Motion Color for Illustrator

The added benefit of splitting the panels is that we can use in other programs as well. Since illustrations are a big part of creating animations, wouldn't it be amazing if you could use the familiar Color tool in Illustrator? Well, now you can!

Motion Mini

More is not always better. A lot of users let us know that sometimes there is just too many tools in Motion. Now, we have the solution for these users: Motion Mini, a tiny panel from which you can run your favorite tools, palettes and easing, all with one click.

Motion Studio

We also added a couple of new tools and features to the Motion Studio toolbox:

• Crop to Layer: This new tool crops the active composition to the selected layer(s). Very handy for when you have a composition that is not the same size as your assets.

• Sort Subfolder support: You can now create subfolders when using the sort tool. Simply specify your folder structure in the format root/subFolder1/subfolder2/...

• Stagger keyframes within Layer Groups: Stagger now offers the ability to stagger keyframes between groups in the same layer. Just select multiple keyframes on different layer groups, select type Keyframe and stagger away!

 

With Motion Studio, we're laying the foundation for a more flexible, and powerful animation workflow. We’re excited to keep building, improving, and listening to your feedback. The future of Motion starts now!