Apple opts out of NAB

[Dias]

Cool, now I don't have any hesitation, I'll invest all my time into Nuke ugliness. :D

And with Nuke 5 on it's way there is no reason not to do so. ;)


Btw, I've listen to an interview with Apple/Shake related guy on FXGuide podcast, he said that Apple has never announced Phenomenon for '08 (unlike some rumors that are going around), and anyway they can always make a dedicated event like Macworld.

[Venkman]

I kept expecting Apple to reveal what they were doing with Shake, and I really thought it would be at NAB. I thought when they canceled it, it was to turn it into another product, revamp it, or fold it into Final Cut Studio.

I read an article somewhere about some firms being frustrated with Apple's secrecy. As an Apple user, it can make it awfully hard to plan out software and hardware purchases when they play their cards so close to the chest.

[ngrava]

I thought Phenomenon wasn't due out till Siggraph? Where did you guys hear about NAB? I don't know, maybe it's just me but NAB seems more like all the video editing and camcorder stuff that fits better with Final Cut then Shake. To me, Siggraph is where you see more of the Feature film FX stuff.

[beaker]

Apple hasn't had a booth at siggraph for a few year now. I don't see them changing anytime soon. It costs millions of dollars to put up a booth at these conferences. You can actually get more information about new products on their web pages and at their Apple Stores.

Siggraph only pulls in 25k people and NAB 150k (90% of which are not graphics professionals).

[unchikun]

Just came across this:

Apple cuts iPod and iPhone production for Q2 - analyst

In a note to clients released this week Berger claimed Apple to have revised its expectations of sales decline as against the December quarter and now expects 60 per cent decline in sales, from a previous expectation of 50 per cent decline.

http://www.macworld.co.uk/news/index.cfm?newsid=20370

[richcz3]

Just came across this:

Apple cuts iPod and iPhone production for Q2 - analyst...
Having read an eyefull of cut backs in multiple industries due to consumer collapse - It's going to be a long lean haul for most manufacturers in 2008 - [globaly]

[Venkman]

Cool, now I don't have any hesitation, I'll invest all my time into Nuke ugliness. :D

Sweet mercy, Nuke is expensive!

[Dias]

Sweet mercy, Nuke is expensive!

I guess it is for individuals, but I'm lucky enough to have a free educational license at FXPHD course. :)

[beaker]

Sweet mercy, Nuke is expensive!$3,500 isn't that bad. Remember Shake used to be $10k not 5-6 years ago. Flame is still $225k

[Venkman]

$3,500 isn't that bad. Remember Shake used to be $10k not 5-6 years ago. Flame is still $225k

I did some quick searching on it and I couldn't find a thing about pricing. The "find a reseller" form on Autodesk's site doesn't help if you don't know the zip of a reseller. There are none in my area.

I hope $225k is a typo! That's outrageous!

[beaker]

no typo, inferno is 100k more then that.

[Venkman]

no typo, inferno is 100k more then that.


Good God. I see now why pricing Shake at $500 was so significant. Too bad it's in limbo right now.

[Aneks]

Frankly Nuke is cheap. I think a lot of people fail to realise where these products come from and what the market has historically been like.

Keep in mind I am talking Australian prices here. Maya is a great example of this. Before Maya came to PC it's predecessor was A|W Power Animator and you needed an SGI to run it. SGI o2's where like 20,000+. Maya come out on PC and SGI and was still op shelf pricing but things like Dynamics, Artisan etc all cost extra. Then finally they integrated it into one package and Maya Unlimited still cost 32,000AUD. Now days its less than half of that.

Shake used to cost 27,000 AUD and now I can buy it for 700AUD and it does a lot more. Flame cost 650kAUD or so.

These are proffesional applications that where initially designed for a very small and specialised market. There is no company that I know that is seriously considering buying Nuke that care about 5000 bucks. You will make that kinda money back from your first job. It's a great thing that all this stuff has become so cheap.

On the whole Apple NAB thing. Well it's to be expected. Apple are focusing more and more a consumer electronics.

How munch money do you think they make in iPhones ?
How many seats of Shake could they possibly ever sell ?

A seat of shake and an iPhone costs almost the same money. But they aren't gonna sell half a million seats of shake in a week of lauch .....

[ngrava]

Good God. I see now why pricing Shake at $500 was so significant. Too bad it's in limbo right now.

I think people need to be more realistic about Shake development and how advanced it is within the market. You announce that it was dead and would never again be update and it would still be a steal at $500! I mean really, it's an incredible program just as it is right?

In other apple news: Aperture 2 just came out today?! it's kind of odd that as they cut production of iPhones they are still releasing products like mad lately.

[Venkman]

I think people need to be more realistic about Shake development and how advanced it is within the market.

I have been sticking with After Effects for my needs (translation: I already own After Effects and cannot justify another program right now with the work I am doing ;) ), but I am wondering where Shake is within the compositing market. I started looking into shake when Apple brought the price down, but I would love to hear some thoughts comparing shake to things like Nuke and such. Where does it fall short? Where does it excel in comparison to other programs at the same price or even ten times the price?

[Verma]

LMFAO..... here's why...... I saw Dias's Avatar, nice one...then looked at the avatar of the post just below his, ...some reaction...., then saw the 2nd post by Dias and saw the avatar on post below that one......totally amazing.

[ngrava]

But that's just the point. All the other node based compositing applications are over $3000. So, the bottom line is that you can compare Nuke, Fusion, Toxic and Flame to Shake but they will all loose in the end when you look at the price. $500 vs $3000+ And, Shake stakes up there with all of them in a very real way. In many cases Shake is superior. There is a reason it's used to ubiquitously in the industry. I do with shake had the built in database/project management/networking side of Toxic and Fusion. It makes them attractive for large studios where it's hard to keep everyone in synch and using the latest footage. But even still, it's hard to argue with cost. ;)

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