DV.com Reviews Apple's Shake 3.5

DV.com has posted a review of Appleis Shake 3.5, a professional compositing utility. Alex Lindsay offers readers an overview of the application from the perspective of a new user. Mr. Lindsay was especially impressed with nodal based compositing and Shakeis open architecture. From the article:

About a year and half ago, shortly after Apple purchased Nothing Real (the original makers of Shake), we sent a few people to Apple to be trained in Shake to see what it was all about. They returned as converts to Shake, and were barely interested in anything else.

[...]

The key thing to realize about Shake is that you are not really "compositing" in the traditional sense. Instead, you are writing a script that will composite the images in the File In Directories. The program is simply a graphical construct to help you build your script.

[...]

This structure creates an environment that is unique to node-based compositors. First, you must be very explicit. In Shake, you have low-level control of the compositing process. When you want to move an image, you add a Move 2D node. When you want to composite an image over another image (something that would happen in After Effects automatically when you add it to a composition), you add an Over node and noodle the images into that node. This process requires a much deeper understanding of compositing than what is needed in After Effects, which-for many users-is actually good. I found that my compositing in After Effects has improved significantly since using Shake because I have a greater understanding of whatis going on. That said, until you have that understanding, the process can be challenging.

You can read the full article at the DV.com Web site.