Apple delivers Universal Shake 4.1 for $499

Posted:
in Mac Software edited January 2014
Apple on Tuesday announced that it is making the first Universal version of its Shake compositing software available for $499 -- an 80 percent price reduction from previous versions of the software.



Users of the company's Final Cut Studio can now take advantage of Shake 4.1 for sophisticated 3D compositing, keying, image tracking and stabilization for the price of a plug-in.



Shake has been the tool of choice for major motion-picture studios and leading effects houses to create award-winning visual effects including this year's Oscar winner, “King Kong.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 71
    hmurchisonhmurchison Posts: 12,419member
    Very nice! Shake now in the realm of affordability for many people. Low cost HD is sparking a little mini revolution here.



    It's not up and the Edu store yet on Apple but I'm sure it will be. I'm thinking now that Apple may have two versions of Final Cut Studio. One version that is an evolutionary product to what we have now and one "Extreme" version with Shake added and perhaps another app (media management?) or two.



    However some ugly rumors of Shake being cancelled in 2008 are surfacing. However that's a ways away. I'd love to learn Shake.
  • Reply 2 of 71
    sunilramansunilraman Posts: 8,133member
    Yeah wow. This sits right inbetween AfterEffects and Premier on the lower end and Discreet Flame and stuff on the higher end. (I probably don't know what I'm talking about here)



    Anyway the core users though will be TV and motiongraphics and indie-HD peoples.



    I wish I was working in motion graphics or film effects. And putting it all together in 4K via Final Cut Studio with Motion and Shake.



    Motion graphics, 3D graphics, compositing, lighting, artistic direction, visualising, pre-visualising, rendering, advertising, film, TV.



    Cool.... An entire gamut of industries and tools I would probably never get to learn, play with, or actively produce with It's okay, another lifetime maybe



    Got close with the web designing though... Flash is the motion graphics for the Internet!!!! Though its horrible abuse across the Web brings down Flash's status........



    Boy I'm really rambling here. Slap me.
  • Reply 3 of 71
    irelandireland Posts: 17,798member
    What's the story in the HUGE price drop?
  • Reply 4 of 71
    Quote:

    Originally posted by sunilraman

    ...



    Boy I'm really rambling here. Slap me.




    *removes white glove and and slaps sunilraman with it*
  • Reply 5 of 71
    recompilerecompile Posts: 100member
    Pardon the Pun, but way to "Shake" things up Apple!

    ...Someone had to say it. I bought Cinema tools at $1000 when it came out. I was glad to see it incorporated into Final cut for free later. Now dropping the price of Shake to $500 is great. It was previously $5000, then dropped to $2500, and now is $500. Awesome!
  • Reply 6 of 71
    chuckerchucker Posts: 5,089member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by hmurchison

    However some ugly rumors of Shake being cancelled in 2008 are surfacing. However that's a ways away. I'd love to learn Shake.



    It is my understanding that Apple considers Shake's implementation a dead end, and that it will be replaced in favor of something else. Think Motion Pro.
  • Reply 7 of 71
    recompilerecompile Posts: 100member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Chucker

    It is my understanding that Apple considers Shake's implementation a dead end, and that it will be replaced in favor of something else. Think Motion Pro.



    I seriously doubt it. But I do see it included with FCP studio at some time.
  • Reply 8 of 71
    amac4meamac4me Posts: 282member
    It's just the first step leading to Shake's eventual EOL.
  • Reply 9 of 71
    hmurchisonhmurchison Posts: 12,419member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Chucker

    IIt is my understanding that Apple considers Shake's implementation a dead end, and that it will be replaced in favor of something else. Think Motion Pro.



    I would agree with this considerig the small amount of development that Shake has seen since Apple's acquisition. It's done well but the evolution IMO has been slower than that of all the other Final Cut Pro sister apps.



    Quote:

    Originally posted by ReCompile

    I seriously doubt it. But I do see it included with FCP studio at some time.



    Shake certainly isn't built like any other Apple app. It didn't even have a GUI for the first couple of versions. I think this tends to slow down development and frankly I wouldn't be surprised to see Apple take the best of Shake and incorporate the code into a new App based on standard OS X framework.



    But until then I'd love to learn a low cost Shake.
  • Reply 10 of 71
    palegolaspalegolas Posts: 1,361member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by hmurchison

    ...However some ugly rumors of Shake being cancelled in 2008 are surfacing. However that's a ways away. I'd love to learn Shake...



    I'd love to learn Shake too. Though I don't really know what for yet I'm an animator/filmmaker so I guess I would find use for it. I could imagine a future Shake be implemented in a more full featured Motion. Perhaps somewhat like Soundtrack is intergrated in Final Cut Pro.

    I guess Motion isn't directly a threat against After Effects. Perhaps a merge between Motion and Shake would pose a threat? I dunno...
  • Reply 11 of 71
    aplnubaplnub Posts: 2,605member
    I may be upgrading my G5 iMac to a dual core unit so I can buy that. That is freekn' mind blowing on the price drop. I don't think I can pass this up.



    If they would just come out with some quite intel xserves I would be good.
  • Reply 12 of 71
    hmurchisonhmurchison Posts: 12,419member
    Some more good info about the future of Shake



    Thanks to Herb Tarlek :



    Quote:

    AE and Shake are 2 completely different applications that are geared towards 2 completely different group of users. If you are doing 3-D compositing, professional keying and image alteration on motion picture, AE doesn't even come close to Shake, which is why Shake has been the defacto tool for just about every major FX picture you can think of (Spider-Man, Harry Potter, X-Men, Lord of The Rings, Matrix etc).



    Now, the "official" rumor is as follows:



    Shake 4.1 is said to be the last release with scale backs in the development team. The same thing is happenning with Aperture (which has been a major commercial and critical failure, the initial release being so full of bugs as to make the application useless).



    The demise of Shake, however, would be relieved by another high-end compositing application not due until 2008.



    There have previously been reports of a high end Final Cut Extreme application in the works.



    Sounds plausible. Apple has aborted selling the maintenence for Shake now and I really see Apple moving to a more affordable Autodesk Toxik like setup. They have all the tools in Xgrid/Qmaster, XSAN and more.



    Shake is a steal though. Buy it and Marco Paolini's Shake 4 book and you'll have years of bliss even if the new compositing app is delivered in 2008
  • Reply 13 of 71
    vinney57vinney57 Posts: 1,162member
    Fantastic news. No excuse not to get it now. I've no doubt that the Pro apps will evolve and converge in the future but learning Shake now is a good investment. The Shake nodal paradigm is the only way for complex composites (try handling 100+ layers in After Effects efficiently).



    The UI's of all the Pro apps are slightly different and they need more consistency (when Steve's decided which one he likes). By definition the development teams will disband and regroup at regular intervals.
  • Reply 14 of 71
    chuckerchucker Posts: 5,089member
    Quote:

    The same thing is happenning with Aperture (which has been a major commercial and critical failure, the initial release being so full of bugs as to make the application useless).



    FUD. The two applications are in completely different situations.
  • Reply 15 of 71
    vinney57vinney57 Posts: 1,162member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Chucker

    FUD. The two applications are in completely different situations.



    +1



    Absolutely; totally misleading.
  • Reply 16 of 71
    hmurchisonhmurchison Posts: 12,419member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Chucker

    FUD. The two applications are in completely different situations.



    I didn't agree with that part. Aperture had a few too many bugs but it is a ground up write of an application and I see it every weekend on a 30" and it's gorgeous and works fine now.



    Commercially there's not a lot of room for $500 photo editing packages. Apple did the right thing dropping the price.



    Whatever Apple has coming in 2008 for a new compositing app is going to be a barn burner. I may as well learn Shake now because I'm definitely thinking Apple will keep the Node based UI intact.
  • Reply 17 of 71
    SpamSandwichSpamSandwich Posts: 33,407member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by hmurchison

    Very nice! Shake now in the realm of affordability for many people. Low cost HD is sparking a little mini revolution here.



    ....



    However some ugly rumors of Shake being cancelled in 2008 are surfacing. However that's a ways away. I'd love to learn Shake.




    If they cancel Shake, it would probably be to rebrand it as MotionPro.
  • Reply 18 of 71
    hmurchisonhmurchison Posts: 12,419member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by SpamSandwich

    If they cancel Shake, it would probably be to rebrand it as MotionPro.





    Here's why they won't do that.



    Motion is going to always default to motion graphics as its forte with a little compositing tossed in. Shake is more of a compositer with a sprinkling of motion graphics. The two are really aimed at two different skillsets.



    Folding Shake into Motion merely confuses the app. An app like Motion doesn't need to be Node based because motion graphics don't require that many layers. In Shake the nodes allow you to handle a much larger stack of effects, composites and painting.



    I expect to eventually see a Motion Pro but I expect we'll see a full on Shake replacement in time.
  • Reply 19 of 71
    a_greera_greer Posts: 4,594member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Ireland

    What's the story in the HUGE price drop?



    VOLUMME...FCP is taking over the prosumer and price concious pro market sectors, loads of folks find it to be the best enviornment for their HD needs, and you can now do end to end HD post on a MBP...affordable compositing was the missing link, now it is all there...
  • Reply 20 of 71
    tenobelltenobell Posts: 7,014member
    A very surprising move. Shake has been used in many of the top VFX movies. Apple can leverage that fact to have Shake on nearly every editors desktop. This price decrease was clearly about volume. You use the software to help sell the hardware.



    Quote:

    It is my understanding that Apple considers Shake's implementation a dead end, and that it will be replaced in favor of something else. Think Motion Pro.



    When has anyone really been able to make a declaration about what Apple is going to do, and that's exactly what they did. I don't see why Apple would put Shake and Motion together. And Motion is already a pro app.



    Quote:

    The same thing is happenning with Aperture (which has been a major commercial and critical failure, the initial release being so full of bugs as to make the application useless).



    Clearly someone who is not around the photography business. I know of several photographers who use it. And when has version 1 of software ever come out perfect with no bugs.
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