I had an interesting conversation from someone on this list the other day, I think it was Jon Bradley about motion.
And someone else directed me to the Motion XML document (thank you for that).
I find this, as a new Motion user, and a former 20 year developer for Windoze applications, and a developer of Flash applications since 1997 and Flex since it's very first Beta, very interesting.
I would submit that it's possible for Apple to allow creation of .SWF's from Motion animations and thus come out with a feature that allows a migration of users from the Flash Player to what Apple might call the CoreAnimation, or another i-prefixed name iPlayer :-)
It's a very critical time-point in the transition of Flash and many developers have been lagging in the learning of ActionScript 3.0 which is critical to the transition, and Microsoft realizes the need for Rich Media and thus SilverLight but you can only author on WInblows.
MY QUESTION: Is that I believe someone said about Motion in the future "if it's still around" / Well, I would assume it will always be around won't it?
So I want to pose the question for anyone, especially anyone from Apple on the list, Motion XML will not just Vaporize in the near future will it?
If Motion continues to improve, I believe it's keyframing and other features are more adept to users than Flash (i.e. the ability to edit at the keyframe level and simply move the timeline). It's comparable to what some users who have trouble with Maya and Animation Master, do and that is they user Poser because it has a similar way of easy keyframing and then detailed keyframing.
And in my opinion, even amongst the Papervision3D crowd which I support, I've still not seen the quality of 3D particle effects I've done with the wonderTouch emitters for Motion 3. wonderTouch particleIllusion is a truly great product, and so are their quality emitters.
So, is Motion going to be around for a long time to come, or not? I mean there are already Open Source SWF projects such as SWFMill that Transform via XSLT XML definitions of a Flash FIle to an .SWF animation.
Apple has a true opportunity to kick some serious butt and leverage the fact that Macromedia made Flash "Open" with SWF, and Apple can support it and improve it and migrate users to Apple. And for anyone who doesn't like my opinions, I think it's quite obvious, I've had some bad run-in's with Microtheives, and A-bloat-be. I didn't buy a 30k machine to kiss-up, I bought it because I support Apple and have followed Jobs' for a long time and out of all the CEO's, he's the most level headed and less aggressive against his own developer community (unlike Microsoft, or now Adobe with proud shoulders built by Macromedia not them).
If it is, my interests are going to be invested in Motion XML, simply because I've had enough of Mickeysoft, I've had enough of Adobe's new aggressive stance since recovering from it's inferiority complex and a document and imaging only company, before it acquired Macromedia (a truly great company just like Apple). The new CEO of Adobe just sucks in my opinion.
Please leave the flaming out of any responses, lists where people get offended and tape each other's mouth shut often don't do well.
SO APPLE, OR Anyone with a cool head out there, WILL MOTION CONTINUE TO EXIST AND IMPROVE IN THE FUTURE AND IS MOTION XML A STABLE FORMAT TO INVEST TIME AND ENERGY IN?