Apple Discontinues Shake

[cheebamonkey]

Am I the only one that sees this as a possible step forward to a new Compositing system from Apple? Apple isn’t in the business of buying software and kiling it, especially software like Shake that has made a huge mark on the industry.

The time is right with the recent update to its other Pro apps to release a brand new dedicated compositing system. Atleast I hope thats the case, Apple is not going to abandon its high end crowd.

I really want them to develop a proper animation package with their fantastic sense of usability. And maybe a little Pixar love.

heh I do love the fans who think that Apple should create software for each market and how it would simply be killer just because Apple does it.

:rolleyes:

[John-S]

heh I do love the fans who think that Apple should create software for each market and how it would simply be killer just because Apple does it.

:rolleyes:

Um, maybe because every pro app that apple has brought to the market has been a killer app! It’s not about apple fanboyism… its about a track record.

Apple bought Shake. Shake was the driving force behind many studios and oscars.

Apple purchased and developed all the Final Cut Studio software. All industry standard killer apps.

Apple Logic… most talked about and used app in the music industry as far as I know.

Apple Aperture… almost a first of its kind that gave Adobe a quick run for their money. Now Aperture vs Lightroom is debatable but its still a solid killer app in the pro industry.

So I’m not saying that there aren’t programs that can hold their own and people love just as much such as Nuke, Adobe Products, etc but Apple has earned their spot for people like me to assume… the next pro app they develop will be just as good.

[ulb]

Um, maybe because every pro app that apple has brought to the market has been a killer app! It’s not about apple fanboyism… its about a track record.

Apple bought Shake. Shake was the driving force behind many studios and oscars.

What I remember:

-Apple buys shake.
-Apple kills the windows version of shake. (great job Apple, thank you)
-Apple stops developping shake. (great job Apple, thank you)
-Apple sells the linux version of shake (wich was the last useful version from my pov) at 10 times the price of the mac version. (great job Apple, thank you)
-Apple kills shake. (great job Apple, thank you)

Now keep talking about Apple and pro apps.

[luceric]

What I remember:
-Apple buys shake.
-Apple kills the windows version of shake. (great job Apple, thank you)
-Apple stops developping shake. (great job Apple, thank you)
-Apple sells the linux version of shake (wich was the last useful version from my pov) at 10 times the price of the mac version. (great job Apple, thank you)
-Apple kills shake. (great job Apple, thank you)
Now keep talking about Apple and pro apps.

  btw, Apple also [bough the Chalice](http://news.cnet.com/Apple-buys-video-effects-technology/2100-1023_3-935796.html)and [RayZ](http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/5933)compositors from Silicon Grail and canned these Shake-competitors immediately.  (never told clients, however, and never disclosed officially the acquisition as you can see in that second article did not know of it)
          
          It was a little on the fanboy revisionism side for the other poster to imply that Apple made Shake and Logic into an Oscar success.  Both products were 100% developed and at their peak when acquired and have not significantly change since.  They were also both available on Windows (Logic had 40% of its user base there)
       
       IMHO Apple bought these products, and later made Motion and Apperture, I believe to make sure that developers would keep making and improving their software on the Mac. It's no longer necessary, and I think their interest has waned.  Around that time, Apple had a bunch of people courting high end 3D companies like Softimage to port their app to the Mac.  A couple of year laters, all of these people were laid off; this was a market that wasn't strategic enough

[Simon_Wicker]

apple didn’t stop developing shake. 3.0. 3.5, 4.0 and 4.1 were all released after they purchased nothing real.

as noted in previous threads the pricing of the linux version was actually dropped from its initial price point when it was owned by nothing real so for every copy of nothing real linux shake you could purchase two copies of apple linux shake.

also apple, knowing that shake was in use in pipelines around the world, allowed those studios to purchase the source code of shake so that it could be maintained in the future.

cheers, simon w.

[Seraca]

I personally Dont care weather Apple Stays in the “pro App” business or not.
Frankly there is market Bloat and redundancy in the high end CG application market anyway.
Yes you will always have fanboi’s insisting that you MUST have such & such program to achieve this and that but the market right now is full of useful apps that one can use to achieve ones objectives.
For Example Most people greeted the arrival of the new final cut studio with a collective …Yawn.
Why??.. because Nonlinear HD Digital video editing programs have “matured” to the point where there is not much more you can add to them except more compositing&SFX features until it becomes
an unwieldy piece of bloatware.

The same with dedicated 3D modeling packages
they are having to add more and SFX features like fur& particle systems to be able to have a longer feature list
than competitors (see Luxology Modo 401).

And on the 2D Print graphics Side we see Adobe Bloatoshop… uhh… I mean Photoshop trying to become a 3D program.

Quark Xpress which enjoyed many years sitting arrogantly on top of the print design heap, until Indesign Came along,
Now has shoe horned in some really Awful “web design” features .

Yes Competition is good and yes it is time to trim alot of the “overlap” but this notion of all programs being all things to All people is what has destroyed the specialist and forced the creation of the “generalist”
which is why you see job listings now with skill set requirements the read like the closing credits to
“Lord of The Rings”

Welcome to the future.

Cheers

[anibar]

Hi

1. Apple is one of the best software and hardware company’s in the world, PLZ don’t blame Apple they know what to do.
2. In the future you all are going to is new products, and than when you look back at Shake ore XSI or MAYA… you are going to

so work with the tools that we have now and have fun working

[ulb]

The same with dedicated 3D modeling packages
they are having to add more and SFX features like fur& particle systems to be able to have a longer feature list
than competitors (see Luxology Modo 401).

Modo was designed to be an all-around 3d package, not just a modeler. They are not just putting new features in it, it was designed to have them and to challenge 3ds max, maya, xsi, …

[Seraca]

Hi

so work with the tools that we have now and have fun working

Thank you
Dont sit and stare at the horizon worrying about
the future of your 3D software.

Cheers

[ArtOfSoulburn]

IMHO Apple bought these products, and later made Motion and Apperture, I believe to make sure that developers would keep making and improving their software on the Mac.

Quoted for agreement. And that plan became less important once the ipod made billions.

• Neil

[ArtOfSoulburn]

so work with the tools that we have now and have fun working

Thank you . Dont sit and stare at the horizon worrying about
the future of your 3D software.

I partly agree, if you live life with the understanding that you may never see a single new feature that you want to use, you can certainly achieve a zen like happiness.

However, I do believe it’s important to be involved with the development of new tools, even if that involvement is simply posting to a wishlist. It’s important that software is pushed in the direction that the users want, so I think it’s more a balance between being happy with what you have, and asking for what you’d like.

• Neil

[andrewhake]

heh I do love the fans who think that Apple should create software for each market and how it would simply be killer just because Apple does it.

:rolleyes:

Please. :rolleyes:

If Apple’s track record for Pro apps was different that may be the case. Apple software in the last 5 years have completely changed industries, how many companies can really honestly say that?

[John-S]

It was a little on the fanboy revisionism side for the other poster to imply that Apple made Shake and Logic into an Oscar success. Both products were 100% developed and at their peak when acquired and have not significantly change since. They were also both available on Windows (Logic had 40% of its user base there)

       IMHO Apple bought these products, and later made Motion and Apperture, I believe to make sure that developers would keep making and improving their software on the Mac.

Geeez. Fanboy revisionism… Its so silly that adults say comments like this. I expect “fanboy” comments from my children at school but come on people. Grow up!

Either-way, I think you have my post confused. Whether Apple developed the software to be the success that it was is irrelevant to what I was saying. My point is merely that Apple “purchases OR develops” software that is extremely competitive against its competitors. I was careful not to point out “better” etc. Just pointed out that they have earned their rights for people to have high expectations of their software.

Also, um… apple developed Final Cut Pro and pretty much the entire studio HUGELY themselves! Have you ever used the original FCP or seen screenshots of the software it was created from?

As far as the comment about apple buying shake and removing all other OS’s compatibilities and then the software itself… Yes, I don’t disagree that if your on the windows linux side of software that has been purchased from apple then their is reason to fear. As well as… if your not a mac user, don’t plan on software floating your way. Is this bad… no in development reasons. Is it fair? No. Not really…

[anibar]

I partly agree, if you live life with the understanding that you may never see a single new feature that you want to use, you can certainly achieve a zen like happiness.

However, I do believe it’s important to be involved with the development of new tools, even if that involvement is simply posting to a wishlist. It’s important that software is pushed in the direction that the users want, so I think it’s more a balance between being happy with what you have, and asking for what you’d like.

• Neil

I think the reason why they make 3d software’s money, if we don’t like the new software they don’t get money so don’t worry. But it’s a good idea to send comment about the software in forums…

[ArtOfSoulburn]

I think the reason why they make 3d software’s money, if we don’t like the new software they don’t get money so don’t worry. But it’s a good idea to send comment about the software in forums…

Well, certainly not buying upgrades is a good way to tell the company that you’re unhappy with the direction they’re going. But it’s a very vague message, since you’re only telling them they’ve done something bad, you’re not giving them info on what direction you’d like them to take.

• Neil

[SuperRune1]

I’m curious… will Shake be considered abandonware now? If it is, can somebody go after the source code and maintain it as an open source comping app?

[beaker]

It was a little on the fanboy revisionism side for the other poster to imply that Apple made Shake and Logic into an Oscar success. Both products were 100% developed and at their peak when acquired and have not significantly change since. They were also both available on Windows (Logic had 40% of its user base there)

No, that is incorrect. There is a huge difference between Shake 2.5 and 4.1. There are nodes in 2.5 that we’re so buggy you wouldn’t dare even touch them by fear that they would corrupt your script: quickpaint, rotoshape, matchmove, tracker, the curve editor was broken, undo was guaranteed to crash the script where in 4.1 it only crashes it 25% of the time Quickshape was horribly slow at roto when you got beyond 50 keyframes.

Shake was nowhere near it’s peak. It only had 2-3k sold copies when they acquired it. It was a $10k application and an extremely niche app. I’ve heard the number 30k thrown around now as the rough number of users/owners of the software since it’s acquisition.

[beaker]

If it is, can somebody go after the source code and maintain it as an open source comping app?

The license on the source code doesn’t allow it. Too bad.

[SuperRune1]

Too bad indeed…

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