I have been using Shake for over two years now, it does not make me an expert but I am comfortable with it. However I don’t like the fact that Apple does not support it or appears to have any intension of replacing it with the much rumoured Phenomenon. This, however is ironic because I could only afford budgeting for Shake because of the fact that Apple dropped support and hence the price.
Yet, Apple actually did some work recently on Shake – interesting. But that, actually, does not change anything. Which leaves me in a quandary; should I persist with Shake or jump ship to another node based compositing tool?
Should I stay?
- Shake is a very powerful collection of wonderful tools
- Shake is well documented
- Shake has been thru the paces at many feature films
- I enjoy working in Shake and know my way around
- There are many who use Shake and some production companies are so tied up with Shake in their workflow.
- Switching will be expensive in time and money
Should I go?(no Nuke)
- Nuke is becoming very popular
- Nuke was put together while in production
- One should be well versed in more than one app
- Nuke has cool 3D capabilities
- Nuke is moving forward with releases, and plan version 6 for next year
I have already been messing around with the Personal Learning Edition of Nuke, but I can’t say at this stage if I could hit the ground running and smiling with a proper version.
Here are some of the functional comparisons between Shake and Nuke.
- FxGuide’s Nuke vs. Shake & Fusion
- vfxtalk.com/forum/nuke-vs-shake
- Highend3d Comparison
If you have any other comparisons add them here
I started using/learning shake a year ago.
At some point I started learning nuke and after effects at the same time.
Nuke is great. I love it. I don’t know it well enough to actually really do some cool stuff, but I can use it for the basics and I find it’s faster then shake and has less bugs. At least its supported as well, and there are some GREAT tutorials on the foundry’s website.
You could learn Fusion as well if you’re into node based packages. Or Combustion (I don’t like it). Or After Effects if you’re worried about prices. The only thing about After Effects is that it’s logic is different from node based compositing.
Good luck.
<3sc
I am working on a Mac, so Fusion is not really an option for me, Autodesk Toxik is, however, a very interesting option when it comes out for the Mac in the next few months.
hmmmm, I just did a price comparison:
Nuke $3500
Toxik $3495
Fusion $4995
Shake $499
darn it
there is just no way I can afford and of these (I already have Shake) especially because I need to first get a new machine (Mac Pro) and that I don’t get paid for the work I do.
Sorry – can you confirm that link?