Fig 3: Uh, I can set the keyframes, but why can't I set the opacity level right here in LM2? Too used to After Effects, I reckon. [an error occurred while processing this directive] Integration
Personally, I prefer using Illustrator over the built-in drawing tools of either program to do my vector drawing, so naturally I'm curious how each contender integrates with Illustrator (and other imaging programs like Photoshop, for that matter). I really expected LiveMotion to have a leg up here, but the "tight integration" LiveMotion boasts with other Adobe apps really doesn't go as far as I thought it would. Sure, it's nice to be able to import (or "place," in the LiveMotion vernacular) a native Illustrator 10 file in LiveMotion. But crucial things like layers aren't retained by default, so you still have to break apart the image and place the individual elements in their own layers once you get into LiveMotion. A largely automated process, but hardly the integration I expected, especially now that Flash MX can do the same thing in the form of the Distribute to Layers command. In fact, I actually found that Flash MX has more options for importing Illustrator files than LiveMotion does. You can copy and paste from Illustrator to both programs. You can drag and drop from Illustrator to both programs. You can import Illustrator files directly into both programs (granted, you have to save your AI files as version 8 or earlier for this to work correctly with Flash MX). But if you use Illustrator to export a SWF file, only Flash will be able to use it. LiveMotion doesn't import SWF files, and with more and more programs supporting the SWF format on both an input as well as an output basis, this is a glaring omission.

Well, what about Photoshop files, then? Again, LiveMotion isn't as integrated as it claims to be. I imported (placed, whatever) the same Photoshop 7 document into both programs, and both did exactly the same thing: They flattened the image layers into a single bitmap. Surely I would have thought that LiveMotion would have retained layers and other settings from the native PSD file, but no dice. Now, LiveMotion did retain layer effects when dragging and dropping from Photoshop, and Flash MX did not. But for the most part, Flash MX kept up with, and in some cases even surpassed, LiveMotion in integrating with other Adobe file formats, which was a huge shock.

Organization
Fortunately, both programs have various ways of organizing your projects so you don't drown in a deluge of layers or panels. It bears mentioning again that Flash MX has made so many wholesale improvements in this area that it's almost mind-boggling, but LiveMotion is fairly competent here as well. Both let you organize your layers on the timeline into folders or groups (fig 4), but LiveMotion goes one better than MX by borrowing the shy layers feature from After Effects, which lets you completely prevent layers you don't want to mess with from showing up in the timeline at all. You can replicate this functionality in Flash MX through folder groupings, but it's not as straightforward a process as in LiveMotion.


Fig 4: Flash MX's folders (left) and LiveMotion 2's groups (right) side by side.

As far as tool palettes go, both programs sport a bunch of different panels that you can configure to your heart's content. LiveMotion users will recognize the familiar Adobe tabbed palette interface, while Flash MX users will notice the lack of the familiar Adobe tabbed palette interface that Flash 5 had (much to Adobe's legal consternation) (fig 5).


Fig 5: No more tabbed interface in Flash.



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