Motion or After Effects for a novice?

I have been editing for nearly eight years or so, most of that time on FCP. Throughout my working life as an editor I've very much wanted to learn a motion graphics package - have posted various questions and I am still at square one - do I go for Motion or After effects? What put me off After Effects is having to purchase a plethora of plug ins. I am not a seasoned graphic artist but have a serious interest. I am also not the sharpest tool in the shed and find learning new software a big challenge. I want the easier option. What do you reckon?

I am biased, but you already have Motion, it's well integrated with FCP, is easier to learn, and has a huge library of content. You can get a bunch of free tips at my site applemotion.net to get started.

That's what I wanted to hear. I skipped some of the Motion content when I installed FCP 6 upgrade - is that a problem? I want clean fonts and some graphical bells and whistles. Cheers Phil

You should install Motion's additional content. Lots of elements to play with and the templates are a great way to start learning some useful techniques.

Motion is a great design tool and in many ways much easier to learn than After Effects.

...but the control you have in After Effects is greater.

I love Motion...for certain things. I use Motion and all it's content as sort of a "plug-in" for After Effects. I create particle elements / animations in Motion with alpha channels that I composite in AE. In these examples, the smoke FX on Jimmie Johnson's spinout at the end of these videos was done in Motion. I brought it in to AE and composited it with an animated still of a birds eye render of JJ's car:

[kartracing.easports.com]

When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.