| Shake | |
|---|---|
 | |
 Shake box art | |
| Developer | Apple Inc. |
| Final release | 4.1.1 / November 21, 2008 |
| Operating system | Mac OS X andLinux |
| Type | Compositing |
| License | Proprietary |
| Website | Apple — Shake at theWayback Machine (archived January 22, 2008) |
Shake is a discontinued imagecompositing package used in thepost-production industry developed byNothing Real for Windows and later acquired byApple Inc. Shake was widely used invisual effects anddigital compositing for film, video and commercials. Shake exposed itsnode graph architecture graphically. It enabled complex image processing sequences to be designed through the connection of effects "nodes" in a graphical workflow interface. This type of compositing interface allowed great flexibility, including the ability to modify the parameters of an earlier image processing step "in context" (while viewing the finalcomposite). Many other compositing packages, such asBlender,Blackmagic Fusion,Nuke andCineon, also used a similar node-based approach.
Shake 4 was available forMac OS X andLinux. Support forMicrosoft Windows andIRIX was discontinued in previous versions.[1][2]
On July 30, 2009, Apple discontinued Shake.[3] No direct product replacement was announced by Apple, but some features are now available inFinal Cut Studio andMotion, such as the SmoothCam filter.[4]
In 1996, Arnaud Hervas and Allen Edwards foundedNothing Real, and released Shake 1.0 as a command-line tool for image processing to high-end visual effects facilities in early 1997.
Emmanuel Mogenet joined the R&D as a senior developer in the summer of 1997 as Shake 2.0 was being rewritten with a full user interface. In the fall of 1997, Dan Candela (R&D), Louis Cetorelli (head of support) and Peter Warner (designer/expert user) were added to the team. After initially working as a consultant in early 1998, Ron Brinkmann also joined in early 1998 as a product manager. This core group was all among the originalSony Imageworks employees.
Shake 2.0 was first shown at the 1998 NAB conference as an alpha demo with a minimal set of nodes, a node view and the player. A more complete beta version of Shake was shown at the 1998 SIGGRAPH conference.
Version 2 was released in early 1999 forWindows NT andIRIX, costing $9900 US per license, or $3900 for a render-only license. Over the next few years, Shake rapidly became the standard compositing software in the visual effects industry for feature films.
In 2002,Apple Computer acquired Nothing Real.[5] A few months later, version 2.5 was released,[6] introducingMac OS X compatibility. To strengthen the Mac's position in production studios, the Mac version held a price ofUS$4,950 (equivalent to $8,654 in 2024), and users of the non-Mac operating systems were given the offer of doubling the number of licenses at no extra cost by migrating to Mac OS X. In 2003, version 3 of Shake was announced,[7] which introduced theQmaster software, discontinued support for Microsoft Windows, and allowed unlimited network render clients at no additional cost. A year later, the release of Shake 3.5 at theNational Association of Broadcasters show saw the price drop to $2999 for Mac OS X and $4999 for Linux and IRIX.
In April 2005 Apple announced Shake 4 at a pre-NAB event. New features included 3D multi-plane compositing, 32-bit Keylight and Primatte keying,optical flow image processing (time-remapping and image stabilization),Final Cut Pro 5 integration and extensions to their open, extensible scripting language andSDK. Shake 4 had no IRIX version.
At the NAB event in April 2006, Apple announced that Shake 4.1 would be aUniversal Binary version and would ship in May that year. It was actually released on June 20, 2006 and was rebranded as a companion forFinal Cut Studio;[8] as such, its price was dropped from $2999 to $499 for Mac OS X but remained the same for Linux. At the same time, Apple announced that they would end support for Shake. Rumor web sites claimed that Apple was working on a next-generation compositing application codenamed Phenomenon.[9] Existing maintenance program subscribers had the option to license the Shake source code forUS$50,000 (equivalent to $77,988 in 2024).
Shake's final release, version 4.1.1, was issued in 2008 to make it compatible with revised Apple 16-bit QuickTime codecs that used a different byte order (Endianness) than they had previously.
On July 30, 2009, Apple removed Shake from its online store and website. Shake had been officially been declared end of life status 3 years prior but continued being sold in the Apple Store for $499 until that time.[10] The Shake website now redirects to Apple's Final Cut Pro X website.
Shake was used in such films asPeter Jackson'sThe Lord of the Rings[11] andKing Kong,[12] as well asHarry Potter[13] films andCloverfield.[14] It was used byThe Embassy to create a television advertisement forCitroën with a dancing car. Shake was used byBroadway Video for restoring the release ofSaturday Night Live: The Complete First Season DVD box set. It was in use byCBS Digital for creating new visual effects forStar Trek Remastered.
Other major productions using Shake include the 2005 adaptation ofWar of the Worlds,Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith,[15]Fantastic Four,Mission: Impossible III,Poseidon,The Incredibles,Hulk,Doctor Who,The Dark Knight[16] andPirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest,[17] and for the restoration ofSouth Pacific.[18]
Shake was used for video post-production, but in this fieldAutodesk's Flint, Flame, and Inferno systems were usually used in conjunction with Shake for a fast turnaround of projects. Shake's historical strength had been the ability to work better with very high resolution formats such as2K,4K, andIMAX used in the motion picture industry.
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