Shake - Is it worth buying and learning now?

[fluidedge]

Hi,

I'm about to start a uni course that will deal with compositing as a significant part. They use PC/Windows computers although i'm of course a mac user.

The packages i'll be using on the course are mainly Combustion and Fusion, and to a lesser extent After Effects.

I'm wondering whether it's worth buying and learning shake in my spare time/ or for the course as it seems to be the standard compositing system for the film/TV industry (although Flame/Inferno are perhaps bigger, but obviously very expensive)

I'd be willing to pick up the new Phenomenon software that must be due any month now (i was hoping for something around the time of NAB) - but i'm not sure if the industry is going to go with Phenomenon after being so set in their ways with shake/flame, so it might not be worth learning phenomenon.

I could just get combustion for OS X as thats what i'll be using on the course, but i would like to use shake as thats what companies like people to use/have on their CV.

I also run bootcamp, so i could run any windows only software too (though i'd have to seriously resize my partition!)

any thoughts on the merits of learning shake from scratch in 2008 even though it's not being supported by apple anymore?

 

[killmoms]

Learning Shake itself is not so useful as learning the ideas behind nodal compositing, and for that purpose Shake is extremely useful. After Effects is layer-based compositing, and Combustion is an odd amalgam of the two. It really depends on what segment of the industry you want to work in. Some post houses that have long-standing rendering and compositing setups built around Shake purchased source code licenses from Apple to continue using and modifying the app. For the most part it's on its way out, but learning nodal compositing is useful if you plan to go into the effects world (especially film, where it is most common). The skills and principles you'll learn from Shake will still apply in apps like Nuke or Fusion.

 

[MacSawdust]

Yes!

As a student, you can pick up Shake for a song. I'm learning it now and the nodal concept is quite powerful once you get your head around it. Apple has not touched Shake for years, but I can't imagine they bought it just to let it die. Viva Shake 5!