Apple Motion vs Terragen
Apple Motion
apple.comTerragen
planetside.co.ukSide by side
| Figure | Apple Motion | Terragen |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | $12.99/mo | $8/mo |
| Free plan | — | Yes |
| Free trial | Yes | Yes |
| Open source | — | — |
| Windows | — | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | — | Yes |
| API | — | Yes |
| Plans published | 4 | 26 |
| Spec score · Visual Effects Software | 8.0 (#13) | 8.6 (#3) |
| Purpose | Motion is a motion graphics tool for creating and animating images, cinematic titles, transitions, and effects in real time. | Terragen builds, renders, and animates realistic natural environments for landscape visualization, visual effects, and artistic work. |
| Support | Apple provides a Motion User Guide, troubleshooting resources, information about supported media formats and plug-ins, and access to Apple Communities. | Support is provided through licensed-user contact, forums, Discord and the documentation wiki. |
| System requirements | Motion requires macOS 15.6 or later, 8 GB memory (16 GB recommended), a Metal-capable graphics card on Intel-based Macs, and 5.2 GB available disk space. | Softpedia lists minimum requirements of 8 GB RAM and a 2 GHz dual-core CPU, recommending 16 GB RAM and a quad-core processor. |
Plans
Apple Motion
- Motion$49.99 a month
- Motion$49.99, paid once
- Apple Creator Studio$12.99 a month
- Motion$49.99, paid once
Terragen
- Terragen 4 Professional — Indie 50$10 a month
- Terragen 4 Professional — Indie 50$96 a year
- Terragen 4 Professional — Indie 100$16 a month
- Terragen 4 Professional — Indie 100$150 a year
- Terragen 4 Professional — Small Co$27 a month
- Terragen 4 Professional — Small Co$240 a year
- Terragen 4 Professional — Mid Co$42 a month
- Terragen 4 FreeFree
- Professional INDIE 50 monthly$10 a month
- Terragen 4 Professional — INDIE 50$10 a month
In their own words
Apple Motion
Apple Motion has no write-up on Specifiction yet; its figures are above.
Terragen
Terragen builds, renders, and animates natural environments for landscape visualization, visual effects, and artistic work. It creates procedural and heightfield terrain, can use real-world terrain data, and adds details such as cliffs and overhangs. Its spherical planetary atmosphere model includes volumetric clouds and fog, multiple scattering, and global illumination. The hybrid renderer combines micropolygon rendering and ray tracing, with support for anti-aliasing, motion blur, depth of field, and render elements. Nearly every project parameter can be animated, and image sequences can be rendered through the interface or command line. Terragen imports 3D objects and camera data, exports terrain as heightfields or geometry in formats including TER, EXR, LWO, OBJ, and FBX, and handles camera data in FBX, Nuke CHAN, and Maya MOV formats. It can also generate HDR environments for lighting in other renderers. Windows and macOS are supported, with Linux render-node support. The free edition is for non-commercial use or 30 days of commercial evaluation, with still renders limited to 1280 × 900. Professional subscriptions start at $10 a month.