'SHAKE' - the mac program

damien666 · Post by **damien666** » Sun Jan 21, 2007 1:20 am

Anybody use 'shake'? I have been looking at getting it... currently I use 'Motion' and FCP-HD. Would you recommend adding 'shake' to the mix? Thanks!

DEDFX · Post by **DEDFX** » Sun Jan 21, 2007 1:49 am

I thought shake was only for pictures, anyways I'm learning motion 2.1.2 which is like magic bullet.

angusware · Post by **angusware** » Sun Jan 21, 2007 2:12 am

Shake is supposed to be awesome isn't it? They did King Kong in shake (I think) so that's probably a good thing...
if you haven't already seen the info page at apple.com here it is:
http://www.apple.com/shake/

ooo...shiny and made by Apple....

DEDFX · Post by **DEDFX** » Sun Jan 21, 2007 4:04 am

Wow, I didn't know it was that powerful. I still don't even know Final Cut that much...

MasterMike · Post by **MasterMike** » Sun Jan 21, 2007 4:48 am

Shake is industry-standard. Many feature films use Shake as their main compositor - Lord of the Rings for the most part, King Kong, Harry Potter, Shaun of the Dead and Pirates of the Caribbean, etc, etc. I've never been able to use it due to lack of access to Macs, however, my university has it and I'll be able to complete several modules in it for my portfolio next year. It's a node-based compositor, as opposed to a linear one like After Effects (which I've used almost exclusively thus far).

Final Cut is less of an industry standard editing program, but is being used in an increasing number of features recently, good examples being Shaun of the Dead and Corpse Bride.

damien666 · Post by **damien666** » Sun Jan 21, 2007 11:36 am

Thanks for the info... I'm thinking it may be a wise investment.. I will get it and let y'all know how it goes. If anyone has any experience with it - I would still be very interested in hearing about it. Thanks again,
Damien666

cantoloupe · Post by **cantoloupe** » Sun Jan 21, 2007 10:01 pm

Shake is extremely powerful, however equally hard to use. It is designed almost exclusively for large-scale compositing projects, which is why it is used so frequently in major productions. As far as amateur and independent film-making goes, After Effects is probably the wiser choice simply because its much more intuitive and has a more complete package - ie. motion graphics creation etc. whereas shake is specifically for compositing.

aaronv2 · Post by **aaronv2** » Mon Jan 22, 2007 9:57 am

Frankly Im amazed at how much peoples choice on software is based on movies they are used in...

You know shake may have been used by an fx compositor at a company but on the same movie after effects could have been used on another sequence and maybe Nuke would have been used too.

Truth is people use what they were taught or what is popular instead of the programs actual ability.

Shake is a compositing app for you guessed it compositing. Final cut pro is a non linear editing suite. for editing. Using Final cut in conjunction with Shake on a mac is like using Adobe Premiere and After effects on a PC.

Its the same with 3d software people go crazy about how many times maya or max were used in a movie.

Instead of just using the hype to make your decision decide what you need and use the features and tasks you will be doing to decide.

I used shake in college and seriously its a clone of Fusion and seriously almost exactly the same as After effects apart from the node system it uses opposed to adobes layers.

angusware · Post by **angusware** » Mon Jan 22, 2007 10:45 am

I think the point of saying what films it's used in isn't hype, it's about showing you what you can do with something. If all you see from some program is crappy films, you would be less likely to buy it and use it than if you saw an excellent film with awesome effects made with something good.
Seeing as Shake is only for mac, one would expect that the person asking about it was using mac. If it's exactly the same as after effects, surely that mean that all the hype about it is identical to the hype about after effects.

wildstorm · Post by **wildstorm** » Mon Jan 22, 2007 7:18 pm

I agree with aaron. If you plan on going to school to learn and get a job in the industry then by all means use Shake. Shake is widely used in the industry. But if you have no plans on going to school or working in the industry then pick something else. I use Adobe After Effect and Premiere. Not because everybody else uses them but the fact that the first photo editing software I used was Adobe photo deluxe or whatever you call it way back in high school. So I've been using Adobe products since then because I have grown accustomed to the software.

A software is only good if you put the time and effort into making it look good.

aaronv2 · Post by **aaronv2** » Sat Jan 27, 2007 4:17 am

it doesnt matter what movies it was used in... the only way to give software a bad name is to be ignorant on how to use it. truth is they are all the same in what they produce. you just need to know how to get what you want out of the software you use.