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Final Cut “Studio 2014″ May 16 by Oliver Peters
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[David Mathis] “Assuming that Shake will work with Mavericks then I am considering that as a replacement. Sometimes nodes are a better way of doing things. Sad that Apple decided to end Shake like they did. It had potential.”
Egads. Friends don’t let friends use Shake in 2014.
If you’re not interested in Nuke (awesome but pricey), there are several other nodal compositors you could consider.
Mamba FX [link] Single-shot compositor based on SGO Mistika, Mac version coming soon
Fusion [link] (no Mac version)
Autodesk Composite [link] (no longer actively developed, free from Autodesk)
PixelConduit [link] (no PC version)
Blender [link] (open-source 3D app, compositor built-in)
ButtleOFX [link] open-source compositor
Natron [link] (another open-source compositor)Walter Soyka
Designer & Mad Scientist at Keen Live [link]
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
@keenlive | RenderBreak [blog] | Profile [LinkedIn] -
And of course Autodesk Smoke, which I also use and am quite fond of.
Walter Soyka
Designer & Mad Scientist at Keen Live [link]
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
@keenlive | RenderBreak [blog] | Profile [LinkedIn] -
[Walter Soyka] “Egads. Friends don’t let friends use Shake in 2014.”
Why ever not???
Granted there are plenty of other options out there, but I recently installed it on Mavericks and it works a treat – just as it has always done.
It’s still crazily powerful – albeit lacking a raft of more contemporary features. I was amazed to be reminded that the installation is just 100MB. What a class act!
I can’t yet see the day when I’ll be giving up on Shake entirely – it’s still a real pleasure to work with.
Simon Ubsdell
tokyo-uk.com -
[Simon Ubsdell] “I recently installed it on Mavericks and it works a treat – just as it has always done.”
Because it was first EOL’ed eight years ago in 2006 and finally discontinued five years ago in 2009? Doesn’t that make you a little nervous about using it in production going forward?
[Simon Ubsdell] “It’s still crazily powerful – albeit lacking a raft of more contemporary features. I was amazed to be reminded that the installation is just 100MB. What a class act!”
Shake parallels FCP7 in a great many ways. Including the eventual migration imperative.
Walter Soyka
Designer & Mad Scientist at Keen Live [link]
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
@keenlive | RenderBreak [blog] | Profile [LinkedIn] -
[Walter Soyka] “Because it was first EOL’ed eight years ago in 2006 and finally discontinued five years ago in 2009? Doesn’t that make you a little nervous about using it in production going forward?”
Oddly enough, Shake continues to inspire me with more confidence than almost any other application I have ever worked in – I think there a massive simplicity and elegance to the underlying architecture that makes it incredibly resilient.
I mean, it’s still working fine in Mavericks – that says a helluva lot about it.
Objectively speaking, of course, you’re totally right – but how can you give up on something that is so deep and powerful and such an incredible pleasure to work with?
Although I’ve lost touch with that community a bit in the last couple of years, I bet there are still a goodly number of VFX people who are still using it for one thing or another. The deep and lasting affection for it was really quite something …
Simon Ubsdell
tokyo-uk.com -
[Simon Ubsdell] “Oddly enough, Shake continues to inspire me with more confidence than almost any other application I have ever worked in – I think there a massive simplicity and elegance to the underlying architecture that makes it incredibly resilient. “
Fair point! If an application doesn’t rely on all that much from the OS, there’s a lot less that can break with new releases. (Contrast this with, say, FCP X with its development highly leveraged on advanced OS features. Of course, the deprecation of QuickTime should probably make everyone a little nervous!)
[Simon Ubsdell] “Objectively speaking, of course, you’re totally right – but how can you give up on something that is so deep and powerful and such an incredible pleasure to work with?”
Adopt something deeper, more powerful, and maybe only slightly less pleasurable to work with?
But you’ve convinced me. If it’s working well, why not? I’d just still caution any Shake user to keep an eye on (see what I did there?) other packages under active development.
Walter Soyka
Designer & Mad Scientist at Keen Live [link]
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
@keenlive | RenderBreak [blog] | Profile [LinkedIn] -
[Walter Soyka] “keep an eye on (see what I did there?) other packages”
Quite so 😉
I was a dedicated (even perhaps an avid) Fusion user back in the very early days and it’s become a very serious contender that I may well revert to …
Have you had a go with it recently?
Simon Ubsdell
tokyo-uk.com -
[Simon Ubsdell] “I was a dedicated (even perhaps an avid) Fusion user back in the very early days and it’s become a very serious contender that I may well revert to … Have you had a go with it recently?”
I did a quick evaluation a couple years ago when I started using PCs, but at that time I chose Nuke instead, somewhat on features/workflow and somewhat on ability to find collaborators.
That said, Fusion’s volume effects and the GPU acceleration were interesting and unique, and Raf Schoenmaekers’s Krokodove toolset is just stunning. Fusion 7 should be released any day now, with a whole stack of new features: a new UI, 3D engine, 3D splines, Alembic/FBX import, linear workflow, OpenColorIO, and more.
I think Fusion will be worth another look when the new version is released. But then again, Nuke Studio might keep me pulling me into The Foundry. (And you’re not helping there with your encouragement of Modo!) Again, I’m not sure I have the brainspace to effectively use both.
Walter Soyka
Designer & Mad Scientist at Keen Live [link]
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
@keenlive | RenderBreak [blog] | Profile [LinkedIn] -
[Walter Soyka] “Egads. Friends don’t let friends use Shake in 2014.
“LOL
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For anyone still interested, here’s the tutorial that shows how to do this:
The great thing about building your own “layer styles” in Motion is that you can publish the results for use in FCP X (either as Titles or as Effects that can be applied to titles or artwork) – allowing for considerably greater flexibility than if you have to use flattened Photoshop layer styles.
And of course you can easily introduce organic-looking light animations – which you can also control within FCP X if you publish the right controls.
Don’t forget that you can also easily save off “favourites” to the Motion library, so it’s easy to build up a collection of your best creations.
Simon Ubsdell
tokyo-uk.com
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