Apple's "Phenomenon" due out in 2008?
The latest release of Apple Computer's Shake compositing software may be the last of its breed, as the company reportedly plans to shift gears and focus on developing the next-generation of the application around a different codebase.
Instead, Apple said it has begun work on the next generation of the software, which reports target for a release in 2008.
According to a rumor first published on MacRumors this week, Shake's successor bears the codename "Phenomenon." Although the software will build off users' experiences with Shake, the report states that it will be based heavily on the the codebase for Motion, Apple's professional graphics animation software.
Shake is a big deal in hollywood, where it is considered the most advanced compositing application — designed for large format productions by major motion picture studios and leading visual effects houses.
The application has been responsible for visual effects in blockbusters such as "Star Wars Episode III," "Harry Potter," "Mission Impossible 3," "The Lord of the Rings" and this year's Oscar winner, "King Kong."
In rolling out Shake 4.1 this week — an update that delivers native support for the new line of Intel Macs — Apple also slashed over 80 percent off the cost of a Shake license.
Apple says the price cut from $2,999 to $499 allows Shake to fit into "almost any productionâs budget."
No further details on Shake's successor have been reported at this time.
18 Comments
TenoBell said in the other thread that he didn't expect Phenomenon to actually take as long as 2008. I tend to agree with this because lately Apple has been underpromising and over-delivering.
Just a bit of history from my rusty memory. Apple purchases Nothing Real makers of Shake and Tremor. That same year they also acquire Silicon Grail's RAYZ another compositor.
To date I don't think the best features of both have been combined which leads me to believe that the succussor to Shake could indeed already be half developed. It could combine the OpengL GPU accelerated features of Motion and meld together the best features of Shake, Chalice and Motion.
Michael McLaughlin stated on hdforindies.com
Apple first purchased Shake if I am correct, and then (in the same year maybe) purchased the set of tools from Silicon Grail (RFX). The interfaces between the two apps were familar, but RAYZ was already doing 2K realtime and decent 4K (2002). RAYZ had a render that was superior to that of the scanline from Shake. It's cache/frame flipbook was also suppose to be highly advanced and the color correction tools because of the code written was more current then Shake's.
And this could be faulty memory, but I thought I remember going to a Siggraph and meeting one of the guys from the company talking about a future database integration they were working on (they were in a SGI booth if I remember right so it could of been SGI).
I can't believe apple didn't / isn't using some of those powerfull tools from that app that seemed way ahead of it's time.
Michael McLaughlin
Here's a Linux Journal article on Rayz
http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/5933
I've read of Shakes speed problems and lack of solid caching. Ray Feeney seems to be spot on here.
NAB 07: FCS 2: featuring FCP with some minor tweaks and speed improvments from the final version of the Intel compiler optimized for 10.5, DVDSP-HD With full native support for HD and the ability to output a DVD, Bluray or HD DVD iso of any project. some tweaks to the rest of the apps...
And the new prize fighter for Apple Video tools; Motion 3D, everything After effects can do and more, with Apple style. "Phenomenon" is just a silly codename, it doesnt fit the apple app monicur, too long and gives no clue as to what it does...Shake isnt going anywhere tho...it still servs a great purpose for high end composit work. Look for memory and resource managment tweaks and modifications to the rendering engine and full utilization of the GPU cycles to help the process along...Shake 5 will be ~2x faster...my guess...
NAB 07: FCS 2: featuring FCP with some minor tweaks and speed improvments from the final version of the Intel compiler optimized for 10.5, DVDSP-HD With full native support for HD and the ability to output a DVD, Bluray or HD DVD iso of any project. some tweaks to the rest of the apps...
And the new prize fighter for Apple Video tools; Motion 3D, everything After effects can do and more, with Apple style. "Phenomenon" is just a silly codename, it doesnt fit the apple app monicur, too long and gives no clue as to what it does...Shake isnt going anywhere tho...it still servs a great purpose for high end composit work. Look for memory and resource managment tweaks and modifications to the rendering engine and full utilization of the GPU cycles to help the process along...Shake 5 will be ~2x faster...my guess...
I can dig it... but I still think it'll be "MotionPro"... 8)
?Shake isnt going anywhere tho...it still servs a great purpose for high end composit work. Look for memory and resource managment tweaks and modifications to the rendering engine and full utilization of the GPU cycles to help the process along...Shake 5 will be ~2x faster...my guess...
Uh, dude, Apple has plainly stated that Shake is EOL'ed; the name may carry over for the next-gen product, but it will be a different code base than the current Shake?
Like good ol' Alias|wavefront going from PowerAnimator to Maya?
Heh, Maya, with all the modules, ran about US$45,000 for a single seat back in the day?
And it will rule the industry?! One compositor to rule them all?!!!
Mwah-hahaha?!
;^p
Every since the news about Shake, I've been wondering why Apple broke with their usual pattern of absolute secrecy and mentioned they were working on a next-gen product on a new codebase.
Either they've concluded that there is no real competition to their next-gen product, or they know someone else is doing the same thing and wanted to pre-announce theirs.