Apple has bought MotionVFX, a firm that makes transitions, effects and plugins for the Final Cut Pro video editing app on Mac — and maybe also for iPad.
One of the benefits of Apple bundling its professional audio and video tools into Apple Creator Studio has been the assumption that they will get updated more. Now with the acquisition of MotionVFX, it's certain that Final Cut Pro will get new features on the Mac, but there's also a chance they will come to the iPad.
"For over 15 years, we've been on a mission to create world-class, visually inspiring content and effects for video editors," says the MotionVFX company in a statement. "From the very beginning, we've been all about quality, ease of use, and great design."
"These are also the values that we admire most in Apple's products, and we're thrilled to be able to embrace them together," it continues.
Up to now, MotionVFX has been a subscription service starting at $30/month. For that, users get some 8,000 design elements for use in Final Cut Pro, finer tracking control, more options for captions, and so on.
As well as being popular for the design of these Final Cut Pro elements, MotionVFX is also convenient. Its various features are added into Final Cut Pro rather than requiring the use of a separate app.
This makes MotionVFX handier than Apple's own system for producing effects and transitions, Motion 5. While Motion 5 is powerful, it's also complex to learn, and while it is ultimately used for creating elements and animations to then be used within Final Cut Pro, nonetheless it is a separate app to buy and learn.
So it seems inevitable that Final Cut Pro on the Mac will gain these features and templates, and they will be particularly easy to use.
Adding to Final Cut Pro on the iPad
Neither MotionVFX nor Apple have said anything at all about the iPad. Currently MotionVFX only supports the iPad with its plugins for DaVinci Resolve — although at present a YouTube video about this has been removed.
So it's more than possible that this acquisition will solely benefit Mac users. But when Apple brought out Apple Creator Studio for both Mac and iPad, it made many of the bundle's apps available on both platforms.
Apple's own Motion 5 was not one of them. It was a blow, too, as although the real benefit is in having Final Cut Pro on the iPad, Motion 5 is a great companion app on the Mac.
Since MotionVFX is intended to work within Final Cut Pro instead of being a separate app, it's possible that Apple will use it to bring Motion features to the iPad without Motion 5.
Surely MotionVFX transitions will be added to the ones already included in Final Cut Pro for iPad
That can't be certain as MotionVFX does produce some of its effects and transitions as Motion 5 files to be imported into Final Cut Pro. But it could add to the built-in effects in Final Cut Pro for iPad.
What happens next
Anecdotally, MotionVFX is primarily centered on Final Cut Pro — but it does also produce elements for both Adobe Premier and DaVinci Resolve. There has been no announcement yet about what, if anything, will happen for MotionVFX subscribers using those apps.
Unlike with some acquisitions, Apple has not immediately shut down MotionVFX's website. Instead, the company's YouTube channel has posted four videos about MotionVFX features in the last few hours.
There is that DaVinci Resolve iPad video which has been set to Private, but it's not clear when that was done. It's still possible to subscribe to MotionVFX, although at one point in the process users are linked out to an Apple Customer Privacy Policy page.
It's most likely, then, that users on systems other than Final Cut Pro will not see a difference at first. There seems little point in maintaining the company's Final Cut Pro features on the website.
Unless, that is, MotionVFX's work goes into solely the Apple Creator Studio subscription version of Final Cut Pro. Conceivably users on the Mac's single-purchase version could get less, or choose to subscribe to MotionVFX as they do now.
