Adobe LiveMotion

Rating:
Summary: I hate to burst the bubble...
Review: ...but LiveMotion is not the god send. Even as a loyal Adobe user, I cannot recommend this tool. Let me start with its benefits first, and then I'll end with its problems.

Two major/revolutionary benefits: First and foremost, Adobe's familiar and designer friendly user interface. Intuitive, easy, and fast. Second, and what makes it completely outstanding, the tools bitmap compression technology is unparalleled. Just experimenting with the extents of its abilities, I output a 54MB QuickTime to an image sequence. Import the sequence into LiveMotion, tweaked, and output a SWF at around 350KB!

The unforgiveable! Web sites are interactive. Without interactivity and content a site is simply gallery fodder, eye candy. LiveMotion's behaviors are infuriating. The program is definitely not without its bugs. Any projects that are beyond simple playground animations chokes and dies. LiveMotion begins falling apart at the seems with SWFs approaching 250-300KB in size.

From the words(/implications) of Adobe's rep, Joe Bowden, wait until the products update release (in the works) which will address all the grouping and nested grouping issues (that are inherent to the programs interactivity). If you can't wait, reign in your projects and look for a work around.

Rating:
Summary: Very Fast to learn and be an expert!
Review: A great software that I love it immediately when trying it! It takes me just a few minutes to create my first annimated graphics! You can edit each attribute of your graphic. You don't need to edit frame by frame! All automatically done!

Rating:
Summary: LiveMotion Not So Great
Review: Adobe LiveMotion, is a very capable product. Using LiveMotion you will be able to create animations and movies. That is, if you can figure out how to use LiveMotion. I purchased my copy as part of the Web Collection, installed it for a while, and then uninstalled it. I was unable to figure out how to be productive with it. For animated GIF files, I already have a great program, JASC Animation Shop (Included with Paint Shop Pro). This application is able to do everything I need it to, in a manner that I can understand. For movies, I prefer Flash 5 which can export in a number of different file formats (including QuickTime and EXE). I am no graphic artist, nor professional, and maybe these people can figure this program out. I am however, a staunch supporter of Adobe applications and very productive with all of them except LiveMotion. Adobe is releasing a new version 2.0, maybe that version will be more useful, but I am not going to try out. For the money, go out a get yourself a more user friendly and easier application.

Rating:
Summary: I hate to burst the bubble...
Review: Create great web animations and movies quickly and easily. I'm fairly new to web animation and vector graphics. I own both both Flash 4 and LiveMotion. LiveMotion is my choice.

The benefits of LiveMotion (besides being user friendly) is that it automatically inserts key frames for you (unlike Flash), and it will auto-tween them. Additionally, LiveMotion gives you the option of saving graphics, animations and rollover "styles" in the library so you can easily use them again in future projects simply by applying them. LiveMotion exports your designs as .swf files (just like Flash) so it is compatible with the plugins already being used in browsers.

After a few months and many books, I'm still trying to figure out the more complex Flash. Not the case with LiveMotion. It is much easier to use and the learning curve isn't nearly as steep as it is for Flash. Sure, Flash's authoring program may offer a few more functions to hard-core developers, but I still choose LiveMotion.

If you're looking for an easy, user-friendly way to create great looking movies (and want to spend your time actually designing the movie instead of reading books on how to figure out the program), get LiveMotion.

Rating:
Summary: Very easy to use. You'll be up and running in no time!
Review: Create great web animations and movies quickly and easily. I'm fairly new to web animation and vector graphics. I own both both Flash 4 and LiveMotion. LiveMotion is my choice.

The benefits of LiveMotion (besides being user friendly) is that it automatically inserts key frames for you (unlike Flash), and it will auto-tween them. Additionally, LiveMotion gives you the option of saving graphics, animations and rollover "styles" in the library so you can easily use them again in future projects simply by applying them. LiveMotion exports your designs as .swf files (just like Flash) so it is compatible with the plugins already being used in browsers.

After a few months and many books, I'm still trying to figure out the more complex Flash. Not the case with LiveMotion. It is much easier to use and the learning curve isn't nearly as steep as it is for Flash. Sure, Flash's authoring program may offer a few more functions to hard-core developers, but I still choose LiveMotion.

If you're looking for an easy, user-friendly way to create great looking movies (and want to spend your time actually designing the movie instead of reading books on how to figure out the program), get LiveMotion.

Rating:
Summary: Livemotion is no FLASH, it's just a slower Imagestyler.
Review: Livemotion was created from the ImageStyler product of Adobe. I am Imagestyler user and was impressed by its functionality and ease of use. Imagestyler 1.0 is a great product especially for web designers who would like pixel-point accuracy and flexible layouting tool.

But it has some limitations though which I expected to have been addressed into Livemotion. Instead Adobe put animation features into Livemotion to rival that of Flash.

When I evaluated Livemotion, these are what I found out: 1. Livemotion could not rival Flash in terms of animation and it will probably take 2 or more releases before it can be at par with Flash. 2. Livemotion is no better than Imagestyler instead its even slower.

So what Adobe did is they dropped the Imagestyler which is a good product on its own and now they try to compete with Flash with Livemotion but its is no contest. So Adobe, please give us Imagestyler 2.0.

Rating:
Summary: Great Animation - Can't Export to any AVI files
Review: The money you pay is just not worth it. I'am not able to export it to my video editing programs. Great in creating effects for your Web Site - but with the money you pay I just think that Adobe should've allowed to export into other media.

Not worth it - unless you only intend to export to Web Pages...

Rating:
Summary: Great Animation - Can't Export to any AVI files
Review: The money you pay is just not worth it. I'am not able to export it to my video editing programs. Great in creating effects for your Web Site - but with the money you pay I just think that Adobe should've allowed to export into other media.

Not worth it - unless you only intend to export to Web Pages...

Rating:
Summary: Competition For Macromedia Flash
Review: This program is a pleasure to use and creates fully compatible Flash movies, graphics and interface items. Not as much in the way of Web site programming as Flash, but has more graphics tools and options. Definitely a contender for anyone who wants to add animated, or still, vector graphics to their Web sites. Also does animated GIFs and regular JPEGs.