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LightWaver-67 · Sep 30, 2003, 05:20 PM

Let me preface this post by saying that I am a whole-hearted supporter of software developers. 99.9% of the software on my system is liscensed & registered... this includes legit versions (I paid full price for) of LightWave, Final Cut Pro, DVD Studio Pro, PShop, Illustrator, and on & on... not to mention all the shareware stuff I buy.

Having said that... I still look for other apps. online to try now & again...

I downloaded (yes... illegally) Apple's "Shake" software to see what the deal is with it.

I cannot... for the LIFE of me (and I'm pretty "software-savvy") figure out HOW the $%#& to USE this application. It looks all "powerful" and everything, but not in the hands of an inexperienced user without a manual to refer to and/or proper training.

I'm not looking for anyone to help me... I'm just rhetorically spouting-off about the complexity and non-intuitive interface that Apple inherited with this application.

I mean, I'm sure this thing is a POWERHOUSE when understood by the end-user... but I couldn't get it to do a SINGLE THING... other than link a bunch of script nodes together and stuff.

Heheheh... do ANY of you actually USE it... and what is the learning-curve like...?

Thanx...

sanity assassin · Sep 30, 2003, 05:38 PM

It has a very specific methodolgy in how it works, and once figured out it works a treat. In saying that though, I'd leave it, and get yourself onto Discreet Combustion, one the best compositors in the world, many of the features comes straight from the higher end Discreet tools, such as the Keyer. The interface is miles ahead of Shake's too.

I take it by your nic. you use Lightwave? I used to use that for tv and film years ago, but moved on ot Softimage. The reason I mention this, is because the way that SI XSI works, and Maya to a degree, is very like Combustion, and Shake i nsome respects.

real · Sep 30, 2003, 05:56 PM

Leaning Shake HUH!

In the Docs in the (help menu) there are tutorials. There is also a Shake book put out by apple which will teach you the basics. Here is a link:
ShakeBook

Shakes interface while alittle confusing at first you will learn to love it. i can't work in anything else now.Combustion is to slow for me(personal Choice) If you have any other questions please feel free to ask.

sanity assassin · Sep 30, 2003, 06:11 PM

Originally posted by real:
Leaning Shake HUH!

In the Docs in the (help menu) there are tutorials. There is also a Shake book put out by apple which will teach you the basics. Here is a link:
ShakeBook

Shakes interface while alittle confusing at first you will learn to love it. i can't work in anything else now.Combustion is to slow for me(personal Choice) If you have any other questions please feel free to ask.

Yeah, Combustion really needs the muscle behind it, something that Macs still lack for compositing work. Shake crawls in comparison to the SGI version, which is what I used to use it on. Combustion on the PC is rock solid though.