Introduction

Used to create the world’s most celebrated visual effects, Shake now runs natively on both PowerPC- and Intel-based Mac computers at a price that fi ts any production’s budget. Shake 4.1 is an affordable, high-quality post-production solution for studios of all sizes, ranging from individual Final Cut Studio owners to boutique operations to large visual e∂ ects facilities. It includes the following powerful features:

Unified 2D/3D compositing.
No other visual e∂ ects software delivers the complete set of tools required by individual artists and full facilities, including full 32-bit float Keylight and Primatte keyers, shape-based morphing and warping, and vector-based paint. Composite live action and 3D CGI layers with more realism using the OpenGLaccelerated 3D multiplane compositing node in Shake 4. 3D compositing is seamlessly integrated into the Node View to work with the same fl exible user interface as every other operation. This modeless workflow means that compositing in 3D is as fast and high quality as the 2D operations. You can create and animate multiple cameras or import Maya-compatible camera data for precise matching between 3D animation and live action. There is now a whole new dimension to the world’s leading fi lm and HD compositing software.

Advanced image processing.
Shake leads the way in integrating the latest image processing technology into a single, affordable visual effects package. Its optical flow technology uses pixel-by-pixel image analysis to create smooth retiming, incredible high-quality resizing, and automatic stabilization. The results are cleaner, sharper, and more natural-looking images.

The best “plug-in” for Final Cut Studio.
Extend Final Cut Studio with Shake and take advantage of an integrated workflow that puts high-quality visual effects tools at your fingertips. Use Shake for sophisticated 3D compositing and keying, color correction, paint, roto and tracking, image stabilization, retiming, warping, morphing, and more. For a powerful graphics and effects combination, Motion 2 projects can be dropped directly into Shake without rendering. Now, for a very modest price, every Final Cut Studio editor can have the power to create worlds beyond imagination.

Open and customizable architecture.
Extend the out-of-the-box feature set by using the internal C-like scripting language and macros in Shake to create custom effects and functions. The open and extensible architecture makes Shake completely customizable for large production pipelines by incorporating all of the Shake commands through AppleScript, Perl, or other scripting tools. Shake can be run from the interface or the UNIX Terminal, making it an excellent “Swiss Army Knife” suitable for compositors, 3D artists, and technical directors.

Unified 2D/3D Compositing

Shake 4.1 includes all the fundamental compositing tools needed to complete highquality, sophisticated visual effects. It allows artists to composite using fast and efficient 2D techniques, as well as a 3D multiplane environment for integrating 3D animations and camera moves within a live action shot.

3D multiplane compositing.
Shake offers the ability to composite unlimited layers in 3D space for seamless blending of live action and CGI. You can import Mayacompatible camera data or add camera animation in Shake. View top, side, front, and camera angles simultaneously for easier positioning of layers; get real-time feedback through the power of GPU acceleration.

Enhanced Node View.
The enhanced Node View makes it possible to navigate composites in the Node View faster and with more extensive customization. Drag nodes over noodles for automatic insertion into a tree. Display color-coded data paths for different bit depths, Concatenation, Expression links, and animated nodes. You can even save Favorite Views that allow you to jump quickly to specifi c areas of a node tree.

Tracking on rotoshape points.
Previously, animating rotoshapes was a slow, manual process. Shake automates rotoscoping tasks by attaching tracking points to control vertices. Create moving mattes by attaching trackers to points on a rotoshape. You can also use tracked shapes for creating masks or for moving warps and morphs.

32-bit Keylight and Primatte.
Shake offers improved keying quality through the precision of full 32-bit floating-point processing. You can now use OpenEXR, Cineon and DPX fi les for keying without clipping white values. Maintain 32-bit float film quality throughout the entire composite or optimize performance by choosing 8-, 16-, or 32-bit processing.

Truelight monitor calibration.
Shake makes it easy to ensure the look of the final film throughout your compositing process. With Truelight monitor calibration, you can previsualize film images on a computer screen. This allows you both to reduce workflow time and to save the cost of film outs. A Truelight node can be placed anywhere in the composite or as a viewer script; select from various film profi les or save facilitywide custom lookup tables.

Image Processing Technology

Shake 4.1 uses the power and elegance of optical flow image processing to create stunning quality for retiming and resizing, shot stabilization, and panorama compositing.

Optical flow–based retiming.
Shake makes it possible to create impressive, smooth slow motion through advanced optical flow technology. You can create extreme slow motion or speed up clips with incredibly smooth results because the adaptive algorithm of optical flow technology creates in-between frames as needed. Select preset standards conversion settings or arbitrarily ramp the speed of a clip.

Smoothcam.
The Smoothcam feature allows you to automatically stabilize a shot or smooth out a bumpy pan. Advanced optical flow technology analyzes the image with minimal user intervention. Remove camera jitter from static shots without setting tracking points; revive unusable shots by correcting uneven pans across a scene, with no need for tedious experimentation.

AutoAlign.
The AutoAlign feature lets you automatically merge multiple images to create a single panorama. AutoAlign uses luminance matching as well as warping to stitch the images together into a seamless whole. Quickly and easily create large images for pan and scan; use frames from an image sequence to create a large clean plate.

Expanded Film and Video Integration

Visual effects are a key part of the workflow for commercial post as well as feature film and television production. New levels of workfl ow integration in Shake 4 have made the editing and effects pipeline even more efficient, while maintaining extraordinary image quality.

Integration with Final Cut Pro 5.
Automatically generate a Node View when you send cuts and layers from the Final Cut Pro Timeline to Shake. Final Cut Pro editors can use Shake to stabilize, resize, and retime clips with cinematic quality or composite the most diffcult blue/green screen shots using its keying, paint, and rotoscoping features.

OpenEXR support.
Shake allows you to import and export files using the emerging industry-standard OpenEXR image fi le format. OpenEXR is a 16-bit floating-point format that uses a higher dynamic range than 8- or 10-bit formats for greater quality. Take advantage of improved memory effciency with this lossless compression format.

Improved Performance

Shake 4.1 achieves even higher levels of performance and effciency.

Native Intel, native PowerPC.
Shake 4.1 is a Universal application, which means it runs natively on both PowerPC- and Intel-based Mac systems. Composite HD, 2K, and even 4K shots directly on set with the performance of a desktop computer using a MacBook Pro. With almost three times the processing performance of a PowerBook G4, Shake 4.1 on MacBook Prolets you start post-production as soon as the director says ”Cut.”

Cache node.
Shake allows you to selectively cache portions of a node tree to memory. Create a memory or disk cache for selected areas in the Node View. The cached nodes are exposed and fully editable, so you can maintain complete flexibility. Further increase performance by calculating only the parts of the composite that change.

Unifi ed 2D/3D Compositing

Shake 4.1 delivers the most effcient compositing operations for handling large images with pristine quality. Looking “under the hood” provides a view of what makes Shake unique among visual effects compositing applications.

Node View Interface
Node-based compositing is more than just a view in Shake 4—it is the logic behind all the compositing operations. The Node View displays the network of linked functions that make up the node tree. Every eff ect is a distinct node that can be inserted into a node tree. The Node View is used to select, view, navigate, and organize a composite. This allows artists to see the controls for functions in the context of a fi nal composite. In-context editing has two important benefits: modifying images upstream and having intuitive controls downstream. The user can easily go back to any operation and turn it on or off , or modify it in the context of the final composite. The Node View gives a very logical and graphic layout for the composite. Because of the Node View, you can modify any part of your composite while viewing the entire composite. As you quickly view and select the controls for each node, you can modify them while looking at the final render. A classic example is the ability to paint on a frame that is rotated in 3D space. The frame does not have to be viewed in a different window; the paint takes into account the rotation and perspective changes to provide a more intuitive view of your effect.

2D/3D Compositing

Shake has long been an industry favorite, in part because of its powerful, intuitive compositing engine. Shake 4 extends the speed and flexibility of the compositing engine to include the ability to composite both 2D and 3D elements within the same user interface.

Resolution independence

Most compositing applications can use various frame sizes in a single project and refer to that as “resolution independence.” For Shake, resolution independence also means that you can change the resolution and bit depth during the compositing process, as many times and wherever you wish. For example, you may output a fi lm-resolution 32-bit plate and an 8-bit videoresolution image simultaneously. Shake allows you to work in 8 bits, 16 bits, and 32 bits per channel, all in the same project. The more bits you have in an image, the higher the quality level as you perform operations. However, the computation requirements are greater for higher bit depths, so you are trading o∂ speed and quality. Shake offers the ability to change bit depth in the middle of a compositing tree. This allows the compositor to optimize the project, using 16- and 32-bit operations where needed while performing quick 8-bit operations as well.

Infinite Workspace
Clipped images can cause unpleasant surprises and time-consuming troubleshooting in the middle of a compositing workfl ow. Shake o∂ ers an Infi nite Workspace, which means that an image is never clipped, even if it goes outside of the frame. In the example shown below, a simple twirl e∂ ect has been applied to an image. Scaling it down shows how clipping can occur in compositing applications that do not have an infi nite workspace. Shake allows the operation to expand outside the frame.

Domain of Defi nition
Visual effects are becoming more and more complex. More layers are being composited and frames are getting larger. Shake uses a Domain of Defi nition (DOD) to identify the signifi cant pixels in an image in order to optimize the speed of rendering effects and layering calculations. Everything outside the DOD is considered as background (black by default) and is therefore ignored in most computations. The DOD is just one of the many extremely powerful ways that Shake can decrease compositing and render times. The DOD can be set automatically by Shake, or you can refine the parameters if you wish.

Layering operations
Shake offers 27 different compositing nodes located in the Layer tab to provide the utmost control and fl exibility when compositing. The category includes primary compositing nodes ranging from Over and KeyMix to Boolean layering operators that add, divide, multiply, or subtract two images together. Shake uses individual “atomic” nodes because they are useful for command-line compositing and scripting. These are also useful for the Node View in that the user can quickly see which type of operation is occurring. A Layer node provides a single node with all the other compositing nodes built into it. It offers more flexibility, because you can easily switch between different layering operations without adding and deleting from the Node View. However, you have to open up the Layer node view to see which operations are being used to combine the different layers. Both methods deliver equally pristine quality, so artists can choose the approach that best suits their compositing style.

3D multiplane compositing
Although a lot of compositing can be handled in 2D space, more and more integration of CGI elements with live action footage makes 3D multiplane compositing critical. The multiplane compositing in Shake is integrated directly into the Node View, making it seamless to jump from 2D paint, rotoscoping, and image processing into a 3D layered composite. Adding a MultiPlane node allows the artist to “plug in” any number of layers to be composited in 3D space. CGI rendered elements can be perfectly matched into live action scenes when you import 3D tracking data from applications like Maya, Boujou, and The Pixel Farm. The layers remain highly interactive while you work, because the 3D MultiPlane node uses OpenGL hardware-accelerated previews.

Rotoscoping and Paint

Rotoscoping
In Shake 4, you can mask a layer or an effect to control which areas of an image are modified (like a bright color correction on a portion of the image). For sophisticated animations, each mask can be keyframed, or each point on the rotoshape can be tracked, and a photorealistic motion blur can be applied. Multiple shapes can be created within one rotoshape node, while soft-edge falloff controls can be modified independently on each control point.

Paint
The QuickPaint node is a touchup tool that can fix problematic shots such as holes in mattes or scratches and dirt on your images. It is a procedural paint system that allows you to change strokes after they have been placed. With QuickPaint, you can apply the e∂ ect and easily ignore it, remove it, or reorder it after you have applied your paint strokes. Because QuickPaint is a vector-based procedural paint system, you can modify the current stroke or any previous paint stroke. You can also modify the paint characteristics (color, size, brush type, opacity, softness) or the position or shape of the stroke.

32-Bit Keylight and Primatte

Keying usually involves the extraction of a mask from a figure shot in front of a blue or green screen. This image can then be composited on top of a di∂ erent background by removing the blue or green Shake includes two industry-standard keyers, Primatte and Keylight, that operate with full 32-bit fl oat precision to ensure the continuation of high bit depth throughout a project. Whereas other packages take a “one-keyer-does-all” approach to keying, Shake allows you to combine keys to achieve the best results. Shake also includes tools for pulling keys based on luminance (brightness) and depth calculated by a 3D render.

Truelight Monitor Calibration

Truelight is a complete HD-to-fi lm or film-to-fi lm color management system from FilmLight, integrated directly into Shake for previsualizing the look of projected fi lm images on Apple LCD displays and CRT display devices. It allows compositors to use Truelight 3D Cube technology to accurately predict the look of their HD or fi lm imagery when printed to fi lm, without unnecessary fi lm outs—thereby saving timeconsuming matching and rework. Truelight calibration nodes can be added anywhere in a Shake compositing “tree” to accurately visualize an image at that point. The compositor can select which profile to use and can also easily bypass the Truelight operation. Truelight calibration can be used for visualization or rendered through into the fi nal output image. Compositors can profi le the current monitor using the Truelight node or optionally take advantage of the wider range of FilmLight hardware calibration products and services.

Advanced Image Processing

Shake 4.1 uses the power of optical flow image processing to create extraordinary image quality for retiming, shot stabilization, tracking, and more. Intuitive splinebased controls offer an unusual combination of flexibility and precision for warping and morphing.

Optical Flow–Based Retiming

Timing controls are important to speed up, slow down, or sync a clip in time. Shake uses an advanced optical flow–based system for retiming shots. Optical fl ow is a sophisticated method of motion estimation that automatically tracks an image pixel by pixel to create “new” frames. The results are stunningly smooth slow motion effects at amazingly low frame rates. Each clip can be nonlinearly retimed, allowing the user to go backward and forward along a clip. For flexibility, this functionality is designed so that developers using thirdparty products like RE:Vision E∂ ects and The Foundry’s Furnace can use their own retiming routines for high-quality results.

Smoothcam and Tracking
Shake includes different ways to stabilize a shot and match one element’s movement to another. Stabilization is used to smooth out bumpy camera moves or eliminate camera movement altogether. Smoothcam is a stabilization method in Shake that uses optical flow technology to automatically remove camera jitter from static shots without setting tracking points. Artists can revive unusable shots by correcting uneven pans across a scene with minimal user intervention. Shake also includes powerful tracking technology that works by following the movement of pixels over a series of frames to create “motion paths” that other elements can be attached to. Placing a logo on the side of a moving truck is the classic example of how tracking is used. But the tracker in Shake allows the user to defi ne various parameters so that tracking even the most diffcult of shots is automated. Because ost movement occurs at the subpixel level, the tracker can sample down to subpixel accuracy. You can smooth a track, apply preprocessing, operate in various color modes, and even weight the color channels.

Shape-Based Morphing and Warping
The shape-based morphing and warping in Shake can be used for fantastic shape shifting or seamless corrective e∂ ects. Integrated directly into the application, morphing and warping shapes use standard spline tools. These tools make it more intuitive to create and modify an effect than mesh-based warping tools. Unlike hardware-based warping tools, Shake uses high-quality software-based rendering for fine precision. Trackers can be applied to shapes to create moving morphs and warps more quickly, and the high-quality warping engine takes advantage of dual processors. Shape-based morphing and warping (as opposed to mesh-based approaches) is based on the concept of using common roto tools to outline areas of an image you want to distort. Once you outline the interesting areas, you then create “destination shapes” that depict where you want the original outlines to end up. Although many people recognize morphing and warping as fantastic visual effects, morphing and warping are fundamental as corrective tools used on a regular basis.

AutoAlign
AutoAlign is a unique transform node that uses optical flow analysis to combine multiple source images into a single panorama. Images that overlap either horizontally or vertically are aligned, warped, and luminance-matched to create a single seamless output image—all without user intervention. Unlike similar photographic tools, the AutoAlign node works with both stills and image sequences. As shown below, you could take three side-by-side shots or an expanse of action and later transform the shots into a single extremely wide-angle background plate.

Editing and E∂ ects Pipeline Integration

Visual effects are a key component of fi lm and television production workflows. One of the challenges comes from creating a seamless, effcient workflow with editing and other post-production operations. Shake 4 offers new levels of pipeline integration, as well as the ability to expedite rendering in order to avoid post-production bottlenecks.

Integration with Final Cut Pro 5
Now the leading fi lm visual effects software can be combined with the world’s leading nonlinear editing software for a powerful integrated pipeline for editing and e∂ ects. Cuts and layers from the Final Cut Pro 5 Timeline can automatically create a Shake node tree. Shake will automatically open from the Final Cut Pro Timeline, cutting down the need to re-create the edits and layers in Shake from scratch. Use the powerful keying, retiming, rotoscoping, and paint tools in Shake or quickly bring in one shot to stabilize it using Smoothcam. Once you finish, you can render using the distributed rendering feature in Shake while you go back to Final Cut Pro and continue editing.

Free Distributed Rendering on Mac OS X
It is common to have hundreds of frames to render, with each frame taking several minutes or even hours of rendering time. Rather than tie up the local machine to render a shot, the renders can be sent off to a render farm (Xserve cluster nodes). Distribution to a render farm can easily be done by any queue management software (such as Rush), but also by Apple Qmaster, included with Shake 4 for Mac OS X.

Quick clustering
In small shops that have one or two artists, managing the network rendering schedule is less of an issue. In fact, having to administer and confi gure a “quick cluster” of computers into a render farm is a hassle. Apple Qmaster can enable any computer on the network to be used as a render farm node at any time. This is perfect for systems that aren’t used during the overnight hours. Just schedule them to become available at a certain time and you have created an “instant” render farm.

Auto-mount cluster storage devices
When a rendering task is distributed using any render queue software, disk storage must be shared by all the machines involved. This typically must be set up by the system administrator via AFP, NFS, or other network facility. Setting up and administering cluster storage is not trivial. Apple Qmaster offers a way to mount the cluster storage device on all of the render nodes assigned to work on the job, thereby making it easier to set up and confi gure the render farm.

Distributed QuickTime rendering'
Using Apple Qmaster, Shake projects can distribute the rendering of a single QuickTime File Out Node. Apple Qmaster splits the file up for rendering and stitches it back together automatically, just as if the render had been executed on a single machine.

Job dependencies
Some rendering jobs depend on the results of previously rendered jobs being available. In many cases, users have to submit a job, wait for its successful completion, and then submit the dependent job. The ability to serialize jobs in Apple Qmaster allows users to specify which jobs should happen first. The Apple Qmaster Job Controller then takes care of proper execution timing.

Open and Customizable Architecture

Shake supports the most complex workflows and sophisticated projects. Using the power of scripting, Shake artists can control every parameter of the program to accomplish anything from creating custom e∂ ects to automating repetitive tasks.

Scripting

Shake projects are called scripts because they are essentially text files saved out in ASCII format. Scripts are extremely flexible and easy to modify, even without launching Shake. For example, if a user has a very large script that looks at image A, but the 3D artist has just made a new version for that image, calling it image B, the user can simply open the script in a text editor and change the reference from image A to image B. The script goes beyond just image pointers to providing a text-based command for every operation that exists in Shake. Most Shake functions can be accessed directly in the Mac OS X Terminal application by typing in commands. A simple command in the Terminal can quickly take a series of TIFF images, apply a mask, and place it over a background image for 35 frames. The result could launch into a RAM player, or the user could write the file out to disk. This scripting capability means that simple repetitive tasks can be done quickly without having to open up the application, import the images, create a tree, and then render.

Expressions
Any parameter in Shake can be a mathematical expression that drives the modif cation or animation of other nodes. Expressions allow you to modify multiple parts of a composite simultaneously or create sophisticated animations that would otherwise be unrealistic to create by hand (for example, a random flickering on a function that controls brightness). Although not the most user-friendly part of any program, the ability to use expressions can save hours of time when modifying complex composites.

Macros
Creating custom effects doesn’t have to require programming experience. Macros can be created in the interface and modified by hand. Macros are created by combining Shake nodes so they act as a single node that is compiled on the fly, which makes using them fast and fl exible. The Shake user community posts hundreds of macros at www.fxshare.com that can be downloaded free.

Open Architecture

For customers wanting to move beyond the rich toolset of Shake, an infi nite level of customization is available through an open architecture. This customization often is a way for facilities to differentiate their capabilities and develop new visual effect techniques in a stable, high-performance environment.

Software developer kit
For software developers or technical directors with some knowledge of C++, the extensive software developer kit (SDK) for Shake can be used to create specifi c tools and e∂ ects. With access to almost every function in Shake, visual e∂ ects companies can integrate a broad range of workfl ow-specific features, new visual effects fi lters, or even entirely new modules.

Visual Effects Workfl ows

Shake 4.1 meets the needs of the most demanding workfl ows for film, television, and commercial post-production. The following descriptions detail Shake workfl ows for the typical production environments, including:

• Commercial post-production
• Feature film production
• Visual effects boutiques
• Animation houses

Commercial Post-Production

Commercial post houses are the backbone of post-production, focusing on shortformat televised content such as commercials, music videos, and infomercials. Commercial television projects demand that every part of a project—from editorial to animation and visual effects—be created with fast turnaround and high quality, sparing no expense. But while advertisers are paying less these days, commercial postproduction companies are expected to deliver more. Post-production facilities need solutions that deliver top-quality isual effects, unique new looks, and fast results. Shake is an ideal solution for augmenting the huge hardware investments already in place in these facilities. It includes production-proven tools like Primatte and Keylight for creating high-quality keys, which can then be fi nished in Final Cut Pro 5 or a hardware-based fi nishing system. Shake o∂ ers signifi cantly higher quality than hardware-based systems for common compositing tasks like warping, resizing, retiming, and creating multilayered comps. The integration with Final Cut Pro makes Shake even more attractive to post houses looking for a fl exible, high-quality editing and effects solution.

Typical workflow for post-production facilities

1. Shoot/create content.
2. Edit with Final Cut Pro 5.
3. Generate CG elements and animations in a 3D application like Luxology modo.
4. Send Final Cut Pro 5 edits and layers to Shake.
5. Composite live action and CGI elements in Shake.
6. Go back to Final Cut Pro 5 for fi nishing.
7. Output to video, DVD, or the web.

Feature Film Production

Large facilities like Weta Digital, Tippett Studio, and Industrial Light & Magic invest millions of dollars in hardware and software to achieve the most productive work environment. These companies are involved in all aspects of a movie—from shooting to 3D animation to compositing to printing out on fi lm. The visual e∂ ects section of a fi lm production company is typically a medium-size to large facility of 20 to 500 people, each working on a shot for a few days to a few weeks. For eΣ ciency, tasks are broken down between 3D artists (to create elements to composite); compositors (to blend rendered or painted elements into a photographed plate); roto-artists (who carefully rotoscope out masks of people and objects); matte painters (who paint photorealistic backgrounds rather than build them in 3D); technical support (to write scripts and specialized code); and I/O people (to bring shots from a film scanner or send fi nished shots to a fi lm printer). This task distribution requires a large network of machines that can easily talk to each other and share files and resources such as rendering machines and disk drives. Such tasks require products that can handle very large projects while maximizing effciency. Shake responds well to those needs because it was created to work effciently on very demanding fi lm-resolution projects while maintaining an excellent price/performance ratio. It has the ability to tackle complex composites with unlimited layers and multiple simultaneous resolutions and bit depths, with an extremely powerful distributed render engine for fast local or networked image calculations.

Typical workflow for feature film production facilities

1. Scan fi lm to a logarithmic fi le format, sometimes including HDR data like OpenEXR.
2. Create models and animation in 3D with a solution like Alias Maya.
3. Composite film footage and CG elements in Shake.
4. Send the end result to a film recorder.

Visual Effects Boutiques

Visual effects boutiques—like Embassy VFX in Vancouver, British Columbia, or Furious FX in Burbank, California—are usually hired by the larger production houses to take over multiple shots within a project. They are highly specialized and work with a small team of talented artists and low overhead. Their success depends on their ability to keep overhead low and deliver fi nished shots on time without sacrifi cing quality. They need a solution to handle large projects very effciently and a∂ ordably. Shake is the perfect solution for these boutiques. It is fast and high quality, and it has the fl exibility to work well in a shop that needs to develop custom solutions. Shake also has qualities that make it a great tool for fi lmmaking—for example, the ability to tackle complex composites with unlimited layers and multiple simultaneous resolutions and bit depths. It accepts numerous fi le formats for seamless integration with other products used on a project and includes an extensive array of tools to accomplish most types of effects.

Typical workflow for visual effects boutiques

1. Import film footage and CG elements.
2. Composite in Shake.
3. Work interactively on the project.
4. Render through any available machine on the network.
5. Send shots to studios or to an outsourced vendor for film print (output material to SD or HD using Final Cut Pro).

Animation Houses

Animation houses like Blue Sky or Luminetik invest considerable amounts of e∂ ort in developing an effcient 3D workflow. More and more, they are implementing effcient 2D compositing workfl ows that provide greater flexibility and speed. These companies are involved in all segments of the film and television industry, including feature films, television programming, and commercial work. Shake is ideal for such projects because entire workfl ows can be relatively automated using the Shake scripting language. Also, Shake was created to work effciently on very demanding multilayered projects with 16- and 32-bit float processing, which is required by many animation houses. It accepts numerous fi le formats and camera data from the most popular 3D application packages, such as Maya. It also includes an extensive array of tools to allow the user to accomplish most types of effects. Shake ships with Apple Qmaster render management software for Mac OS X, which can also manage the rendering from Maya. This combination is a perfect solution for animation houses, allowing them to maximize their hardware resources.

Typical workflow for animation houses

1. Create models and animation in 3D with a solution like Alias Maya or Luxology modo.
2. Output various render passes (shadow pass, specular pass, and so on) for greater
3. control in compositing.
4. Import layers and camera data from animation software.
5. Send to render farm for calculation.
6. View results and tweak if necessary.

Technical Specifications

Compositing

• Process tree–based compositing
• Control over bit depth at a localnode level
• Mix image resolutions within acomposition
• 3D MultiPlane node with cameracontrols
• Import Maya-compatible cameratracking data
• Customizable quad split viewer
• Multi-input Layer node with blendmodes
• Boolean and Image Math layeroperations
• Import Photoshop layers with blendmodes
• Fully editable node grouping/ungrouping
• Channel swapping and copying
• Constraint of any operation to channel,fi eld, tolerance, or region
• External masking capabilities forevery operator
• Audio scratch track support in Mac OS X
• Support for third-party plug-insincluding The Foundry, Pixel Farm, and RE:Vision E∂ ects

Filters

• Film-grain simulation
• Extremely fast, high-quality Gaussian blurs
• User-defi nable Convolves
• Grain, Median, Sharpening, Embossing, Edge Detection, Radial Blur, and Z-Depth-based Blur
• Optical Defocus
• Dilation/Erosion
• Image-driven Blurring, Sharpening, or Dilation

Keying

• 32-bit Photron Primatte chroma keyer included
• 32-bit CFC Keylight chroma keyer included
• Chroma, Luma, Di∂ erence, or Z-Depth keying
• Spill-suppression

Color correction and channel manipulation

• Pixel Analyzer gathers image analysis data over multiple frames for use on color correction
• Curve-based color correction
• Color correction super node
• Color correction lookup table
• Extensive set of RGB, matte, Z-depth, and HSV based color correction tools
• Logarithmic/Linear color space conversion with per-channel roll-o∂ controls
• Support for multiple color spaces including RGB, HSV, HLS, CMY, and YUV
• Video-legal color correction
• Concatenation of adjacent color corrections into one lookup table

Warps

• Shape-based warper and morpher nodes
• New Lens warp node
• Randomization and turbulence
• Twirl and Pincushion
• Image- and expression-based warping

Paint

• Procedural, pressure-sensitive vectorbased paint
• Insert Paint nodes anywhere in the process tree
• Clone, reveal, and smudge paint modes
• Apply tracking data to paint strokes
• View paint strokes in context of transforms
• Switch interpolation modes at any time: single frame, persistent, and frame-toframe interpolation

Animation

• Animate virtually any slider or toggle
• Flexible split-window animation curve editing
• Automatic or manual keyframing
• Copy/Paste keyframes
• View audio waveforms against animation curves
• Drive parameter animation based on audio
• Overlapping key controls for moving, interpolating, and replacing control vertices
• Curve controls for maintaining keyframe slopes and values over a range of frames
• Resample function
• Linking of any parameter to any other parameter
• Expressions on any parameter

Engine

• Optical fl ow–based retiming
• OpenEXR, Cineon, and DPX support
• 10-bit and 16-bit QuickTime support
• Apple Uncompressed 8- and 10-bit 4:2:2 support
• Support for 15 other formats
• Support for custom fi le header metadata
• Hybrid tile-based, scan-line renderer
• True per-node control of bit depth, at 8, 16, or 32 bits per channel (fl oat)
• Domain of Defi nition processing optimization
• Disk-based or on-the-fl y proxy system
• Anamorphic image support
• Macro creation for frequently used operations
• Automatic persistent node caching
• C-like scripting language can make calls to any locally available shared programming library
• Built-in runtime compiler
• Built-in software-based GL-like renderer
• Software developer kit for software extensibility
• Command-line scripting access to all commands
• 100% software-based rendering for visually identical results cross platform
• Generation of anti-aliased text using TrueType and Adobe Type 1 fonts

Rotoscoping

• Multiple Bezier-style rotoshapes per node
• Independent animation control
• Nonuniform edge blurring
• Apply tracking data to rotoshapes and points
• Nonuniform, velocity-based motion blur
• Shape parenting

Transformations

• Infi nite Workspace keeps elements and fi lters from being cropped when moved out of frame
• Pan, Rotate, Scale, Shear, and Corner Pin
• Tracker, Stabilizer, and Matchmove nodes
• Smoothcam optical fl ow–based stabilization
• Tracker preprocessing to reduce inaccuracies
• AutoAlign
• Optical fl ow–based resizing
• Concatenation of adjacent transformations into a single move, for speed and quality
• Per-transformation or global motion blur control
• Motion blur with shutter and quality control
• Apply motion blur initial frame setting
• Ability to control transformation order
• Inverse transformations
• In-context direct manipulation controls

Interface

• Preview composites on broadcast monitors using third-party supported Mac OS X hardware
• Onscreen manipulators for transformations
• Multiple resolution or channel viewers
• Integrated Truelight monitor calibration
• RAM FlipBook for viewing of compositing tree at any stage
• RAM FlipBook playback while rendering
• QuickTime disk-based FlipBook in Mac OS X
• Viewer-specifi c lookup tables
• In-viewer region of interest
• In-viewer image compare bu∂ er

Apple Qmaster

• Network render management for Mac OS X
• Integrated user interface for job creation and monitoring
• Integrated Maya rendering support
• Oπ oading processor-intensive tasks to other computers
• Create multiple “clusters” of Macintosh computers for specifi c jobs, artists, or application
• Fault-tolerant architecture ensures successful job completion and accurate results, even in the event of resource deallocation
• Optimized usage of network resources through load-balancing algorithms
• Compatible with third-party commandline rendering applications running on Mac OS X

Price and Availability

The U.S. retail price of Shake 4.1 is $499. A crossgrade version is available to owners of the Shake 4 retail package for $49. Contact your authorized Apple representative for education prices. Shake 4.1 for Mac OS X includes a single-workstation license with unlimited network rendering. It is available worldwide in English and can be purchased from the Apple Store online (www.apple.com/store), Apple Authorized Resellers, and Apple retail stores. Shake 4.1 for Linux is available only as a fl oating network license through shake-sales@apple.com.

Minimum System Requirements

Mac OS X

• Macintosh computer with 1GHz or faster PowerPC G4, PowerPC G5, or Intel processor
• Mac OS X v10.4.6 or later
• QuickTime 7.0.4 or later
• 512MB of RAM or more
• AGP or PCI Express graphics card with at least 32MB of video memory and OpenGL hardware acceleration
• Display with 1280-by-1024-pixel resolution and 24-bit color
• 1GB of available disk space for caching and temporary fi les
• Three-button mouse
• Optional: AJA Kona or Blackmagic DeckLink card to preview composites on a broadcast video monitor

Linux

• 1GHz or faster Pentium III, Pentium 4, or AMD Athlon processor
• Fedora Core 4
• 512MB of RAM or more
• 1GB of available hard disk space for disk cache
• Workstation-class graphics card, such as NVIDIA Quadro2 or Quadro4
• Display with 1280-by-1024-pixel resolution and 24-bit color
• Three-button mouse

Support

Apple offers the following support options for purchasers of Shake 4.1:

90 days of complimentary telephone support.
Shake comes with 90 days ofcomplimentary telephone support for basic troubleshooting, installation, and launch issues.

Per-incident support.
For more complex integration and troubleshooting issues, per-incident support can be purchased. Dedicated online forums including www.shakeforums.com, www.fxshare.com, www.creativecow.net, and www.fxguide.com allow Shake artists to ask questions of other Shake artists and exchange custom effects.

Tutorials

Comprehensive tutorial materials, ranging from lessons for beginners to in-depth projects for experienced users, are included with Shake. The tutorials consist of detailed instruction in a printed manual as well as media assets included with the application.

Training

The Apple Pro Training Program is designed to keep you at the forefront of Apple’s digital media technology while giving you a competitive edge. Whether you are an editor, graphic designer, sound designer, web developer, special e∂ ects artist, or teacher, these training tools are meant to help you expand your skills.

Take instructor-led classes at an Apple Authorized Training Center
There are more than 125 Apple Authorized Training Centers worldwide. For more information, visit www.apple.com/software/pro/training.

Use self-study courses from the Apple Pro Training Series

The offcial Apple Pro Training Series courseware is published by Peachpit Press. For more information, visit www.peachpit.com.

Become an Apple Certified Pro
On completion of the course material, you can become an Apple Certifi ed Pro by taking the certifi cation exam at an Apple Authorized Training Center. For details, visit www.apple.com/software/pro/training.