You buy software?
Did not think people still did that… :shrug:
First, if you are using Mac… there is no 3ds max for Mac so you have to buy PC. I don’t know your scale of SFX works so you should download demo version of combustion and test your self.
I think combustion is…
If someone ask me after effects or combustion… I’ll say definitely combustion, but shake? I can’t say nothing coz I have never tested.
You’re kidding, right ?
It’s very important to buy software-- if you don’t, it won’t be made anymore.
Of course it’s important to try it out at first to make sure you can use it (many companies are now offering demo versions), and it’s equally important to do paying projects with bought software.
having used’em both for doing comps of purely rendered sequences (no mix of filmed and rendered footage) i clearly prefer shake. i checked both of these packages without any prior compositing experience and with my usual habit of ignoring the manuals.
shake: it’s fast, very stable, has a slick, very organized and thus very easy to learn yet customizable interface and the scene-graph works just great. there are other strong points like script-ability, huge userbase and possibly a lot more but that’s what i noticed during my compositing-struggles.
combustion on the other hand was slow, a memory hog, really not very stable, had this (to me) strange and cumbersome to learn interface and a scene graph that wasn’t anywhere near shake’s.
but yeah, it’s cheap in comparison.
I have used shake just a little,so… it seems to me combustion has a much better paint / masks module.
Plus what I do hate about shake is that you need a seperate operator for every little thing.
just for balance 
-k
Sometimes I just can’t find things under comp or paint, so I think I will love that kind of system. I really need to see all in schematic view. ALL! Please, please, please!!!
Hmm… even my flame batches are getting “out of control” sometimes, so if I think of having to use a seperate operator for every rotoshape plus seperate operators for changing opacity of those rotos plus seperate operators for inverting the rotoshape plus seperate operators to combine some together… and by now I just did a bit of roto. One thing is sure for me… I definately do not want to see all in schematic view.
-k
im using the stock 5200 with 64mb ram on my dual g5. Combustion 3 SCREAMS on it compared to PC. I had a quadro mod card for it on PC, it was terrible.
Ive only used shake on Mac, there is a linux x86 version, but i cant comment on it, as i didnt use it.
I think shake definently takes a different approach. The keyers i found to be extremely useful over anything in combustion, but the particles in combustion are amazing. Theyre only fast on a mac, honestly.
Combustion has all kinds of VFX built right in, mainly with the particles. Shake, is alittle tricky, i dont even know a whole lot about it myself. (student!)
It seems like Combustion gives you more bang for the buck. It is even cheeper than AE pro. But why have Combustion,flint, smoke, fire, hydrogen bomb lol. are they all not the same?
Well, flame/flint/inferno/smoke only runo n IRIX. until recently they made linux ports. IMO they are the same, but some have some amazing keyers/particles/text engines over the others. Combustion i guess is a good mix, but nothing that compares to each individual app.
And then comes intellgent filtering system… If you don’t want to see all, you just click a button and do your job like always.
And yes, mask and paint operators can still keep all sub-systems under… of course 
shake is the best compositing software ive used…
its far far more faster than combustion
ya its very expensive but its worth it.
it actully depends on which kind of projject u r workin onn
if its a small time project ill suggest u to ues a cracked version of combustion
if its sumthin big… go for shake
but in the starting ill suggest u to use cracked versions (shake or combustion)
then if it works fine , purchase it…
take care
hi ,
this is sapan. im working on shake from past 2 years. iv also worked on combustion.
shake rocks. !!
its work flow is superb.
had shake not been there, our project (disney’s higglytown heros-22episodes) would have got screwed. we were only able to finish it coz of shake on time.
but it definitely depends on the project…
what ill suggest u is, if its a small time project start it with a cracked version of combustion
then u can go on for the licence.
&&& iff its a big project just go & get ur shake licence…
coz nothing could be better then that…
ok i wanna ask , have ne body tried nuke??
have heard that its too good… i also downloaded few of its vid tuts.
plz tell me if there is good tuts available on net for nuke…
hi ,
this is sapan. im working on shake from past 2 years. iv also worked on combustion.
shake rocks. !!
its work flow is superb.
had shake not been there, our project (disney’s higglytown heros-22episodes)
but it definitely depends on the project…
what ill suggest u is, if its a small time project start it with a cracked version of combustion
then u can go on for the licence.
&&& iff its a big project just go & get ur shake licence…
coz nothing could be better then that…
ok i wanna ask , have ne body tried nuke??
have heard that its too good… i also downloaded few of its vid tuts.
plz tell me if there is good tuts available on net for nuke…
Have not used Nuke do not know much about it. I want SHAKE but can not justify the price just yet.
dude let’s get real
shake,digital fusion, after effects, there plug in’s can all be downloaded off limewire or edonkey in like 20 min…shit after you have it why would you pay for software?
That was kin of funny tho…start off with a cracked copy then go buy it LOL what a dumb ass
definnetly true, i just didnt know how the mods are with discussion of warez. Most other forums would have closed the thread by now.
But the thing is, if you get caught using the pirate software, your in deep. Thats why i would do the cracked version, THEN buy it IF the business was successful. That way if your business fails, you didnt just shoot a few grand on a program you have no real application for.