Fusion vs After Effects: Which is Better for Motion Design? 

I am working with Fusion since Eyeon days in 1999 and with After Effects since version 3 or 4! One thing that is super important is the workflow. Fusion have node based workflow, and working with nodes is way more cleaner that working on a layer hierarchy in After Effects. Adobe subscription + the ability to have a node based workflow made me move from After Effects to 100% fusion at least for my own needs.

2:22 you actually don't have to buy Fusion standalone separately, when you buy Resolve studio, you can activate Fusion studio with the same key. You can import vector files like SVG btw but not illustrator files, but there's a plugin that you can use for that. Probably has to do with licensing. I mean BM added USD file support in Fusion so early because its open source but not AI files. Fusion also has guides and pixel snapping btw. Although there aren't as many plugins for Fusion as AE, I mean plugins are the reason why AE is alive, there are lot of plugins for Fusion like the reactor which is a free package manager for Fusion. If you are working with big projects then don't use the Fusion tab in Resolve, use the standalone version, it's a billion times faster than anything out there. I mean they were showcasing full production level comp running in real-time on GPU 10 years ago.

Great video! Exactly what I was looking for, thank you!

Need to say im just getting started and recently switched from FCPX to DaVinci. I tested Premiere but the Color Grading is worlds away from DaVinci and all in all I think I can work better with DaVinci (no the point I want to talk about) but as I do some Motion Graphics work for small clients and want to dig deeper in this field and also in the VFX field it gets really tricky with which software to use. After using Nodes on the color tab in DaVinci and watching some fusion videos I need to say that Nodes (for me) are far more simple and you get an better overview of what is happening BUT and here is the big but. The fact that you can design a Logo in Illustrator and simply import it to AE with each Layer separate this is just such a huge deal and also there is not really an alternative to Photoshop in terms of AI Features. So I guess I will do my editing and all the compositing and vfx work I will do in the future in DaVinci, as it uses nodes (like NUKE) and for Motion Graphics AE because of all the plugins and tutorials out there and also because its integrations.

Fusion runs circles around AE with 3D animation compositing. It isn't even a contest, it's a slaughter. AE is less flexible, can't copy and paste between comps, no Ascii format support, corruption of files, reliance on paid plug-ins which eventually break or lose support, so many precomps, no ability to instance effects or layers beyond a 1-way expression relationship, issues with OCIO support, issues with Adobe's internal color management, always years late at supporting new industry standards, no ability to save and package layer + effects compositing like you can with Fusion's macros, no Linux support, you must redo position keyframes in AE when working with proxy vs full resolution footage since AE works in pixel values and not percentage values, and it cannot handle high resolution 32bpc comps well since it's internal frame buffer has severe limits. Fusion is faster that AE at processing 3D composites. It used to be 6x faster, now it is 40% faster as AE has gained better GPU support over the years. AE is good at 2D animation, text, and simple comps. That's all.

In relation to price, I'm pretty sure if you have a Resolve Studio license, then you also have a Fusion Studio license. From my understanding, Resolve Studio includes Fusion Studio, Fusion Studio is also available as a standalone in case you only want to use Fusion Studio don't want the extra "bloat" included with Resolve Studio.

Very helpful. Thanks!

02:52 fusion can read vector format, simply.. just convert your vector file (ie: ai, cdr, eps) into .svg format.

I replaced Maya, Substance Painter, Zbrush, Keyshot, and Marmoset with blender. I'm replacing AE, Premier with Davinci. Photoshop with krita. The world is changing

Thanks for this interesting comparison - but I actually prefer DR Fusion, I'm just well accustomed to Fuison. 'After Effects' just looks a bit much chaotic to me and is, of course, fairly expensive as you have to use it together with 'Premiere Pro' - so no alternative for me. I stay with DaVinci Resolve having that many other features (Color Grading, Fairlight etc.) apart from Fusion which is a fantastic deal when using the Studio Version.

Hei, since you have extensive experience with both softwares, I would like to ask something. I find it very slow for AE to work with EXR and cryptomatte layers. Is it the same experience with Fusion too?

did you compere it to the studio version? caus that has better rendering times. the free version don't have support for GPU acceleration such as the paid version has.

I love your review!!

fair comparison, cheers

Maybe I am wrong, but I think that Fusion free can import svg files (vector). At least Studio can. And a great news is that on 18.5 we can import usd files.

It's always weird when I hear people say that layers are harder to use than nodes. Layers are simple enough to understand and get used to but I look at nodes and I have no idea what I'm looking at. It's like trying to read a language I've never seen. If After Effects didn't require a subscription that would be my obvious choice.

Great video. Thanks for your opinion!

Until they make Fusion easier to work with, no way in hell I'm giving up on after effects... it's seriously one of the best software out there (rest of Adobe is terrible in comparison). Where in AE making typography, shapes and motion graphics is intuitive and easy to grasp, I had to close the software because I got so frustrated with simple things... Keyframing is annoying, the shapes transformations is terrible... really no idea why they made it so overly complex

SVG is vector file.

АЕ is better for vector nimated stuff, better integration with illustrator. Fusion is good with compositing and I love it, but I got faster final results with AE .

At the beginning 0:50 you say that Fusion is not a standalone application, but that's not true because there are two versions, one integrated in Davinci Resolve, and a version with more features, just standalone. A 2:58 you say Fusion doesn't support vector files, but Fusion supports SVG files (aren't these vectors? If you load one you will see masks applied to the backgrounds. Now for 3D Fusion it also supports USD files. Also on the grids maybe you don't know how to activate them, there are also the TABs on the text. On layers or nodes, trying to change some programming by just jumping to a node operation is much more intuitive than understanding how the layers are connected. Surely After Effect enjoys templates and plugins that have been composed over many years, Fusion is young and cannot boast the same things. Surely Fusion is far from a complete software, it really has many things to fix especially the heaviness and the amount of memory.

some people compare Davinci to nuke... I do not feel like learning premiere and After effect... since Davinci and fusion are linked to gether i hit both with one ball.

I love your way of reviewing! keep it up

bro davinci resolve is not insert many file for me davinci is bad

How can you say that Fusion doesn't support "vector files" when in the next sentence you say it supports SVGs? SVG is a vector file format, the standard one. The fact that AE refuses to import SVGs should have lost it the round.

One should really compare against the standalone version of Fusion as it's more full-featured and runs without the overhead of the davinci. If you have the dongle for davinci, it runs Fusion standalone.

SVG is Vector file

I'm here to learn fusion for motion graphics

All the points AE scored are not a "NEED" in fusion. you dont need those plugins in fusion...fusion has almost everything you need to create those effects from AE plugins. So Fusion wins. easy to use. UI well organized. SVG, PSD import supported. Fusion works out of the box! Winner Fusion

Действительно так лучше чем на лядской мове

акцент жоский

Jake Paul vs

you are too young to make this kind of statment