Is Shake Worth It?

[user_deleted]

Is Shake worth getting? I know Apple isn't supporting it anymore, and they're developing something new, while companies have been shelling out for the source code. I know After Effects pretty well, but I'm looking to get more into compositing live action and 3d, which from what I understand Shake is really good at. I'm also an Apple junkie, will probably not switch to anything else, and at $400 or whatever Shake is probably worth getting, or is it?

[user_deleted]

shake is great if you really want to learn how compositing works, because it's a really bare bones approach.

that said, shake is not terribly good in 3d, although you can of course comp renders coming from your favorite 3d package.

if you come from after effects you should expect a month or two to get used to how things work, it might look confusing at the beginning but personally i find that shake is one of the simples and most elegant apps i've ever used while still being very powerful.

basically if you want to get into compositing it's a hell of a deal... there's not much of competition around in that price range. heck, the documentation alone is worth 500 bucks

download the 30day demo to see if it doesnt scare you off.. and read the manual.. all of it.
++ chris

[aaron-marine]

shake is awesome when it comes to compositing live action with 3D. mainly because apple was smart enough to let you the user choose how you want your object premultiplied. if you notice when putting 3D renders with alpha channels in apps like after effects you get this ugly black line border around your 3D object. you dont get that in shake because it lets you define how the alpha premultiplication works. and if your 3D renders have a z-depth channel rendered into them, you can use a bunch of other features in shake based on z-depth.

and apple is still supporting it. they are coming out with a new product that will put everything else to shame, but shake is one of their strong points right now. some people say they dropped its price to the consumer market because it wasnt worth that much...that just isnt true. it had a price cut for sales benefit and it they ended up making more off shake than they would have. same with other application price cuts.

but yeah i agree, start with a 30 day trial of shake to see how you like it, and im pretty sure you're going to fall in love with it.

[user_deleted]

QUOTE(whitecrow1 @ 05/31/07, 03:12 AM) [snapback]267198[/snapback]
shake is awesome when it comes to compositing live action with 3D. mainly because apple was smart enough to let you the user choose how you want your object premultiplied. if you notice when putting 3D renders with alpha channels in apps like after effects you get this ugly black line border around your 3D object. you dont get that in shake because it lets you define how the alpha premultiplication works. and if your 3D renders have a z-depth channel rendered into them, you can use a bunch of other features in shake based on z-depth.

and apple is still supporting it. they are coming out with a new product that will put everything else to shame, but shake is one of their strong points right now. some people say they dropped its price to the consumer market because it wasnt worth that much...that just isnt true. it had a price cut for sales benefit and it they ended up making more off shake than they would have. same with other application price cuts.

but yeah i agree, start with a 30 day trial of shake to see how you like it, and im pretty sure you're going to fall in love with it.

While I agree that Shake is great, do not wait on Apple to create a new compositing application. From my understanding from inside sources there has not been one line of code written yet for this "new application" The only thingyou may see if more tools added to Motion, and that is about it.

Also, Apple is no longer supporting Shake. They have support for installs but that is it. Most of the Shake team that used to be with nothing Real recently left Apple to now go workon Nuke. Trust me, Apple chas no clue about compositing.

Shake still has legs because it is such a ropbust product and will be great for a few years to come. The problem is, if you are going to be a freelancer working on somebody elses equipment, they may shy away from products that are no longer supported for newer software packages. So if you are going to be an independent contractor and use your own gear, then get yourself a copy of Shake.

[user_deleted]

I second everyone's opinion. Shake is a very powerful compositing software in all its simplicity. It is very fundamental. It lets you manipulate data stream directly, giving you access to the very core of the problem you are trying to solve while leaving the rest of the data untouched.

From a technical director or compositing supervisor's point of view, Shake also promotes team collaboration. Node based workspace forces your artist to work and think systematically. A TD can glimpse at an artist' problematic tree and pinpoint the problem quite easily, he can either fix it on spot or create a new solution next to the existing one and reroute the process flow to the new solution and switch back and forth with the original solution. You can try out as many solutions as you wish without spoiling the previous ones.

I too, am not holding my breath until Apple comes up with their elusive Shake killer. Shake is nearly perfect and I believe there's a decade or so left under its hood. I don't see any real reason I should switch to another compositing software anytime soon. There are very few compositing tasks Shake cannot readily handle. Its near open source architecture allows you to write your own add-ons (or make changes to its core engine) pretty easily if needed.

Newer software will only give you new shiny buttons that bypass a few steps in the workflow, simplifying your work, speeding things up. But at the end they'll only turn you into a retard. It's better for you and the longevity of your career to understand the very fundamental of those buttons, how they work and why. And Shake gives you just that.

Like a pencil, a hammer, or a saw, Shake is one such simple, rudimentary tools that will never go obsolete.
(But again, you are hearing this from a guy who's still using Softimage 3D regularly . . .)

[aaron-marine]

i wasnt exactly 100% posative when i said apple is coming out with a something bigger and better. what i meant to say is that its been rumored in numerous sources that something is to come called "phenominon" that is basicly a beafed up shake. but of couse this comes from the same places where they talk about "final cut extreme", which has been a no-show at NAB for the past 2 years they talked about it.

now that i think about it, the technical group hasnt really supporded shake in a while. when i switched to version 4.1 they havent had any pro-apps updates for it at all....but really its okay because if you get down to bare bones with the command line work flow you dont really need any updates. to me its pretty much perfect as it is.

if i were to say it needed anything that would have to be a new matchmoving method that differs from standard tracking methods. something like boujou or even the new version of flame. that would make me smile =D

[user_deleted]

Thanks for the info guys. I'm really looking forward to this.