Expert’s Rating
Pros
Cons
Our Verdict
Apple ’s Shake compositing program has been used to produce special effects for the last seven winners of the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects . At $ 2,999 , the package obviously is n’t for everyone , but if your employment depends on a compositing program such as Adobe After Effects ( , November 2004 ) or Discreet ’s Combustion , then you ’ll want to take a look at the latest variant of Shake .
With unexampled warping and morphing tools , improved web rendering , and numerous workflow enhancement , Shake 3.5 is a valuable raise for current handshaking exploiter . But because its lymph node - based compositing system is so dissimilar from the timeline - base scheme used by most other compositing apps , unexampled users will need to think very cautiously before switching .
All Compositing, All the Time
It ’s crucial to understand that Shake is a consecrate compositing programme , not a motion - graphics program like Apple ’s Motion ( , January 2005 ) or a combination compositing - and - motion computer graphic program like Adobe After outcome . If you call for to make the eccentric of animation want for professional motion graphic , using Shake is going to be very tedious . Similarly , Shake does n’t propose 3 - D compositing or animation tools . ( Apple says that Shake 4 , which is schedule to ship in June , will include 3 - D compositing feature film . )
Shake provides a much fine degree of control than its competitor but it also requires you do more employment to make even a round-eyed composite . handclasp does n’t do anything automatically , which pass water the curriculum a little more difficult to use , but also makes it a spate more brawny than the competition . The good tidings is that , while Shake will pull you to teach some compositing theory that you may not have needed to understand to practice After Effects , this hypothesis will make you a better at compositing in the farseeing run .
Nodes and Noodles
In a typical compositing program , you import mass medium ingredient and then stack them up as layers in a timeline . Though this approach is very visceral , it frequently requires complex “ pre - comping ” step to control the purchase order of compositing . In increase , tweaking the parametric quantity of a individual cognitive operation can postulate stab down through a complex tangle of port element .
In Shake , every man of medium and every procedure come out as a separate “ client ” in a node tree . These nodes are connect together using noodles — curvy lines that show how information hang into and out of dissimilar operations to create a last composite . milkshake ’s tool collection includes a exhaustive set of node for everything from make color slate , gradient fill and rotoscoping shapes , to perform color keys , warps , blur , and much more .
Unlike After Effects , which automatically composites bed as they ’re stacked on top of each other , everything in Shake has to be explicitly defined . If you want to composite two layers , you must add together an Over node to your undertaking and link up your source images into that client . The outcome can then be link up to other effects or composites .
Because every process is a separate leaf node , you could quickly and easy get to any filter or mathematical operation to tweak its parameter , blue-pencil it or replace it , and you never have to do any pre - comping or nest compositing .
Shake offers unbelievable scripting office and customization . provide more than just simple batch processing or mechanization , judder lets you make complex product pipelines that span multiple machines . For mellow - end product work flow , Shake ’s scripting is unmatched .
As bare-ass major power goes , Shake is not any quicker at rendering or outputting than After Effects , but its power to go in a float - base colour space work it ideal for high - dynamical - range characteristic cinema and in high spirits - definition video work . rendering 3.5 sports better Aries hoard for improve on - sieve playback , but it is still very washy when compared to After Effects or Combustion . Having to spend a luck of fourth dimension hold off for frames to memory cache is just a frustrating fact of life with Shake 3.5 .
What’s New
In addition to improved RAM caching , as well as some melioration to the program ’s net version , didder 3.5 ’s most important improvement are the addition of raw spline - based warping and morphing puppet .
You may recollect you do n’t need such effects for your task , but warping and morphing are actually workhorse tools that can help you better composite elements that might be slightly mismatched in size of it , position or perspective .
regrettably , many of Shake ’s other casual dick are still nonstandard and dumb . Rather than a unproblematic Levels slider like the ones you ’ll find in After Effects or Photoshop , Shake provides separate Expand , Compress , and luminance command . These are perfectly effective , but Levels is a wide-eyed , standardised interface that should be present in Shake .
Macworld’s Buying Advice
There ’s no doubt that if you have a complex compositing task , Shake can do it , and plausibly with smashing ease than After Effects . But be organize for those first projects to take a foresighted time as you get up to speed with the program . handshaking is well worth its damage — and for projects that utilize in high spirits - dynamic - reach elements , it ’s a must - have — but before you buy , be certain you may budget in some training , in the anatomy of either Word of God or class .
Version 3.5 ’s ameliorate caching and fresh Warp and Morph tools make this a must - have rise for dedicated Shake users .
[ Ben Long is a self-employed person writer and videographer based in San Francisco . ]
5/18/05 – EDITOR ’S NOTE : data bestow about Shake 4 .
