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Apple assumes no responsibility with regard to the performance or use of these products. 1 Contents Preface 5 5 6 9 9 11 11 12 12 12 13 19 20 23 23 24 29 31 36 38 42 47 47 51 58 69 About the New Features in Shake 4 Changes to the Shake Documentation Summary of New Features Interface Enhancements Saving Favorite Views Enable/Disable Local File Paths Directories Saved to the Favorites List Are Permanent Locking Parameters A Next Button to Create Additional Local Variables The Console Tab New Global Parameters Resizing the Node Overview New Ways of Adding and Connecting Nodes Cloned Node Naming Monitor Calibration With Truelight Updated Onscreen Controls for Transform Nodes Major Features and New Nodes Using Shake With Final Cut Pro 5 New Adaptive Method for Retiming Remastering Media Options in the FileIn Node The Cache Node New Parameter in the Mask Subtree of Nodes New Features for RotoShape Nodes The SmoothCam Node The AutoAlign Node The LensWarp Node Chapter 1 Chapter 2 3 Chapter 3 73 73 75 81 82 88 94 100 105 Compositing With the MultiPlane Node An Overview of the MultiPlane Node Using the Multi-Pane Viewer Display Connecting Inputs to a MultiPlane Node Using Camera and Tracking Data From .ma Files Transforming Individual Layers Attaching Layers to the Camera and to Locator Points Parameters in the Images Tab Manipulating the Camera 4 Contents About the New Features in Shake 4 This document covers all of the new features and enhancements introduced in Shake 4. If you are already familiar with previous versions of Shake, this document lets you focus on the extensive new enhancements and additions. Note: All of information in this document is duplicated from the Shake 4 User Manual included in your Shake box and available in PDF-format from the Shake Help menu. Changes to the Shake Documentation The print and onscreen (PDF-format) documentation has been completely reorganized and expanded from prior versions. User Manual The user manual has been divided into more chapters to make topics easier to find in the table of contents and in the bookmarks drawer of the onscreen PDF. In addition, the documentation of many prior features has been expanded. Node Reference Guide Scripting and variables documentation for each of Shake's functions, previously located in the user manual, has been moved to a new document: the Shake 4 Node Reference Guide, accessible from the Shake Help menu. The Cookbook The Cookbook--a popular collection of tips and techniques for improving your workflow in Shake--has been relocated from the tutorials book to to the last chapter of the user manual. What's more, content from the Cookbook has been integrated into the rest of the manual, where appropriate, to make these topics more accessible. Preface 5 Summary of New Features This section summarizes the new features that appear in this document. Topics in Chapter 1 · You can open two scripts at once using the Shake graphical user interface. · You can save and restore favorite views in each Shake interface area. · You can enable the ability to use relative paths in the File Browser. · Favorite directories in the File Browser are now saved automatically. · There are now lock controls for each parameter. · There is a new "next" button when you create local variables, which makes it easier to create many variables at a time. · A new console tab lets you view the contents of the console from within Shake. · New global parameters provide additional ways to control new features. · An enhanced Node View provides options for visualizing animated nodes, expression links, node concatenation, and noodle color coding and stippling. · You can now resize the node overview. · There are four new ways of adding and connecting nodes to a node tree. · Cloned nodes are now named differently. · Truelight monitor calibration software is included, which also provide a new Viewer lookup table (VLUT) option for the Viewer. · The onscreen controls for transform nodes have been updated, with additional hot keys. Topics in Chapter 2 · Shake now supports the OpenEXR format. · There is new support for clips and sequences sent from Final Cut Pro 5 to Shake 4. · New adaptive retiming options in the FileIn node use optical flow technology to create smooth motion retiming. · New remastering options in the FileIn node use optical flow technology to deinterlace, change frame rates, and rescale images for high-quality format conversion. · A new Cache node lets you specify key points to be cached in your node tree. · A new clampMask parameter in the mask subtree of nodes lets you clamp mask image data to a value between 0 and 1. · The RotoShape node has new features, including: · The ability to copy and paste shapes between compatible nodes. · The ability to cut and paste rotoshape keyframes. · Controls to retime shape keyframes · New commands for attaching trackers to individual shape control points. · The ability to import and export shape data. · The SmoothCam node automatically smooths or locks camera motion in a shot. 6 Preface About the New Features in Shake 4 · The AutoAlign node uses advanced image processing to align up to three input images with one another, automatically. · The LensWarp node provides calibration tools to correct for lens distortion, or to match the lens distortion from one shot in another. Chapter 3 · Chapter 3 contains complete documentation for the MultiPlane node, which provides the ability to do the following: · Composite background or foreground elements against a moving background plate using 3D camera tracking data. · Arrange multiple layers within a 3D coordinate space for easy simulation of perspective, parallax, and other depth effects. Preface About the New Features in Shake 4 7 1 Interface Enhancements 1 This chapter covers general enhancements throughout the Shake interface. Opening Two Scripts at Once Shake is designed to have only one script open at a time. Typically, each script is used to create a single compositing project, with a single frame range and a single node tree. Although Shake supports multiple independent node trees within the same script, all trees share the same duration, defined by the timeRange parameter in the Globals tab. If necessary, it is now possible to open two scripts simultaneously in two separate interface windows. In this case, what you're really doing is launching two instances of Shake at once. This is primarily useful if you need to copy information from one script to another. Important: When you open Shake twice, the first instance of Shake is the only one that is able to write to and read from the cache. Saving Favorite Views If you find yourself panning back and forth within a particular area to the same regions, you can now create a Favorite View within that area. The Favorite Views apply to the following areas of the Shake interface: · Node View: You can save several views in your node tree where you'll be making frequent adjustments. · Viewer: If you're doing paint work on a zoomed-in image in the Viewer, you can save the position and zoom level of several different regions of the image. · Curve Editor: You can save several different pan, zoom-level, and displayed-curve collections that you need to switch among as you adjust the animation of different nodes in your project. · Parameters tab: You can save the parameters being tweaked, as well as the node being displayed in the Viewer. 9 Once you've saved one or more Favorite Views in each interface area, you can instantly recall the position, zoom level, and state of that area by recalling the Favorite View that you saved. You can save up to five Favorite Views. To define a Favorite View: 1 Pan to a position in an area that contains the region you want to save as a Favorite View. If necessary, adjust the zoom level to encompass the area that you want to include. 2 Depending on the area you're adjusting, you can save additional state information particular to that area. Make additional adjustments as necessary so that you can recall the desired project elements: · In the Node View, you can save the state of the nodes that are currently loaded into the Viewer and Parameters tabs. · In the Viewer, you can save the node that's currently being viewed. · In the Curve Editor, you can save the curves that are currently loaded and displayed. · In the Parameters tab, you can save the parameters that are being tweaked, as well as the node displayed in the Viewer. 3 To save a Favorite View, move the pointer into that area and do one of the following: · Right-click anywhere within the area, then choose Favorite Views > View N > Save from the shortcut menu (where N is one of the five Favorite Views you can save). · Press Shift-F1-5, where F1, F2, F3, F4, and F5 correspond to each of the Favorite Views. Restoring Favorite Views Once you've defined one or more Favorite Views, you can restore them in one of two ways. Simply restoring the framing results in the current contents of that area being panned and zoomed to the saved position. Restoring the framing and state, on the other hand, results in the restoration of additional state information that was adjusted in step 2. To restore the framing of a Favorite View, do one of the following: · Right-click in the Viewer, Node View, or Curve Editor, then choose Favorite Views > View N > Restore Framing from the shortcut menu (where N is one of the five Favorite Views you can save). · Press F1-5, where F1, F2, F3, F4, and F5 correspond to each of the Favorite Views. That area is set to the originally saved position and zoom level. 10 Chapter 1 Shake 4.0 Interface Enhancements To restore the framing and state of a Favorite View, do one of the following: · Right-click in the Viewer, Node View, or Curve Editor, then choose Favorite Views > View N > Restore Framing & State from the shortcut menu (where N is one of the five Favorite Views you can save). · Press Option-F1-5 or Alt-F1-5, where F1, F2, F3, F4, and F5 correspond to each of the Favorite Views. Depending on the area, the originally saved position and zoom level are recalled, as well as the following state information: · In the Node View, the node or nodes that were loaded into the Viewer and Parameters tabs when you saved the Favorite View · In the Viewer, the node that was viewed when you saved the Favorite View · In the Curve Editor, the curves that were loaded and displayed when you saved the Favorite View · In the Parameters tab, the parameters that were being tweaked, as well as the node that was displayed, when you saved the Favorite View Enable/Disable Local File Paths The Relative Path control, to the left of the Add to Favorites control in the File Browser, gives you the option to enter a relative file path into the File Name field. Enable local file paths. Disable local file paths. Relative file paths can take one of two forms: · ./myDirectory/myFile/ · ../myDirectory/myFile/ Directories Saved to the Favorites List Are Permanent If there are one or more directories with content you frequently need to access, you can add them to the Favorites list. The Favorites list is a customizable list of directories ...