Comment Re:Yes, it runs (on) Linux! (Score 3, Informative) 110
Shake does not compete with the core business of Autodesk Flame/Inferno or DS-Nitris. They are very different animals. With Shake you are not going to sit down with a client behind you in the room and interactively change around your composite while the client makes comments, viewing changes on a broadcast monitor. Shake is not designed to work that way. Shake is a fantastic tool for dealing with complex shots - which tend to exist mostly in the feature film world - but is not very client interactive. Clients are (currently) still paying big bucks for the interactive tools mentioned above to complete jobs on an hourly basis, complete with an online edit and everything.
In the business we have been wondering about this move by Apple. It's generally being viewed as a good thing but it brings into question the future of Shake. In an email sent out, apple includes this interesting tidbit:
"C. Additionally, Maintenance customers may choose to license the Shake 4.1
Source Code for $50,000. The Source Code license includes a 5,000 seat
volume license of Shake 4.1. This offer is designed to help facilities with
significant Shake investments maintain a reliable and controllable visual
effects pipeline. Maintenance customers that wish to license the Shake 4.1
Source Code must do so by July 23, 2006. Apple reserves the right to refuse
any maintenance customer source Code access."
This is aimed squarely at facilities like Weta Digital, who currently have (so I've heard) hundreds of Linux shake licenses. At $50,000 would take care of all the licenses they would ever need and all they would need is a Mac to run it on. Access to the source code would put them in a better position to expand their custom shake plugins and integration into their pipeline. The idea being that Weta and companies like them would be inclined to buy more macs. Apple is first and foremost a hardware company....
Just my .02 from within the VFX realm....
-pulse
In the business we have been wondering about this move by Apple. It's generally being viewed as a good thing but it brings into question the future of Shake. In an email sent out, apple includes this interesting tidbit:
"C. Additionally, Maintenance customers may choose to license the Shake 4.1
Source Code for $50,000. The Source Code license includes a 5,000 seat
volume license of Shake 4.1. This offer is designed to help facilities with
significant Shake investments maintain a reliable and controllable visual
effects pipeline. Maintenance customers that wish to license the Shake 4.1
Source Code must do so by July 23, 2006. Apple reserves the right to refuse
any maintenance customer source Code access."
This is aimed squarely at facilities like Weta Digital, who currently have (so I've heard) hundreds of Linux shake licenses. At $50,000 would take care of all the licenses they would ever need and all they would need is a Mac to run it on. Access to the source code would put them in a better position to expand their custom shake plugins and integration into their pipeline. The idea being that Weta and companies like them would be inclined to buy more macs. Apple is first and foremost a hardware company....
Just my
-pulse
