Nothing Real Ships Shake Version 2.4

VENICE, Calif. --(Jun. 20, 2001)-- Nothing Real announced the worldwide availability of Shake Version 2.4. This major release of the company’s compositing software builds upon solid and mature production-proven technology to offer creatives in film, HDTV, broadcast, post-production and multimedia, the fastest solution for complex image manipulation tasks, the company said.

Shake Version 2.4 contains significant feature set improvements, including a new streamlined graphic user interface, an integrated vector-based procedural paint node, advanced color correction tool, a new rotoscoping node, and several ease-of-use improvements. It is available on the Windows NT/2000, IRIX and Linux operating systems.
Shake 2.4 offers professional content creators the option of two different graphic user interfaces. The first is an evolution of the classic Shake interface. The second interface is based on the new and streamlined interface found in Tremor™, Nothing Real’s new line of high-performance turnkey systems.

This new interface offering represents Nothing Real’s commitment to provide facilities with products that are 100 percent compatible— from front-room to back-room to render farm—making it easier to collaborate on projects and to train talent.

“Shake 2.4 is a major release that brings a more advanced and robust feature set to artists who demand lightning speed and maximum flexibility in the compositing process,” said Allen Edwards. “With each version of the release we want to bring artists tools that will enhance their workflow without a sacrifice to compositing speed.
“To date, customer feedback for 2.4 has been extremely positive and we are confident that with its superior price/performance, interoperability with leading third-party products, and numerous feature enhancements, that it will allow our customers to be even more competitive and work smarter.”

Customer Enthusiasm Runs High for Shake 2.4
Gary Jackemuk, digital effects supervisor and owner of Lightbox Pictures, a Los Angeles-based digital visual effects facility that provides consulting, supervision and compositing services, stated:
“With Shake 2.4, Nothing Real continues to push ahead to bring more advanced tools to the film and video production compositing community.

“One new feature that is unparalleled by any other software is the in-context vector-based ‘QuickPaint’ painting node. This new feature finally brings painting and compositing into one fluid methodology where it belongs.
“With this, and every release of Shake, Nothing Real continues to improve on a great compositing product, Shake remains the fastest scanline based compositing system available. You can’t beat the price performance, superb quality—and you definitely can’t go wrong with the ability to do 8-bit, 16-bit or floating point calculations seamlessly.”
David Shere, head Shake compositor at Sundog Films in Toronto, has been a beta site tester for Shake 2.4. Sundog Films is a leading full-service facility handling the pre-production, shooting and post visual effects and editing for music videos, commercials, documentaries, TV series and feature films.

Shere commented: “Shake 2.4 is a major upgrade from Version 2.3 that offers some great new tools and benefits. The procedural paint node has already proved invaluable. When our client decided to ‘stop down’ the background plates three months into post, Shake’s procedural paint function automatically updated from the new footage without the need to repaint allowing us to save on time and money.”

Sundog Films have also recently purchased a Tremor system.
Highlights of Shake Version 2.4
Shake 2.4 highlights include the following:

• Vector-based Procedural Paint—A procedural, vector-based paint node is fully integrated in the compositing pipeline to provide users with unprecedented flexibility. This allows artists to paint in-context on the same screen where the composite is being created without having to switch programs or modules. Wire removals, dusting, masks and other creative aspects of the compositing process are easily accomplished on-the-fly, and with ease.
• Advanced Color Correction Node—An extensive and advanced color correction super node allows much easier color manipulation and control, reducing the amount of nodes and steps required to accomplish given tasks. This node allows for correcting just the highlights, midtones and shadows, along with manipulating specific curves for red, green and blue, thus allowing artists greater freedom to create without compromise.
• Advanced Rotoscoping—A suite of advanced features to include multiple masks per node, non-uniform and motion-based blur settings, parenting and many other attributes, make this a powerful rotoscoping tool. This functionality will bring added flexibility and efficiency to rotoscoping jobs by allowing the artist to modify work without the need to render rotoscoping passes.
• True Resolution Independence—Shake 2.4 is equipped to automatically handle different bit-depths (8, 16, 32) and resolutions (Web, 601, HDTV, film, Imax) within the same project for optimal flexibility and quality.
• Third-party Plug-in Support—Leading keying technology from Primatte and Keylight are bundled into Shake 2.4. Other third-party keyers such as Ultimatte are also available. Plug-in support for Shake is also available from leading vendors including The Foundry, GenArts, Colorfront, RE:Vision Effects and Rising Sun Research.
• Tracking and Stabilization—This feature provides users with fast and powerful technology to track, stabilize and matchmove or otherwise wrestle into submission the most demanding shots.
• Platform Independence—Shake composites look and work identically whether running on the Windows NT/2000, Irix or Linux platforms. (Shake on the Mac OS X is scheduled for release later in the year.) Because Shake licenses are always floating, customers are able to launch Shake on any machine in a facility regardless of operating system.
• Open and Flexible Technology—Nothing Real technology is 100 percent compatible across product lines. The compatibility between Shake, Tremor and the Shake rendering engine allows facilities to easily migrate projects from front-room to back-room to render farm and makes it easier to collaborate on projects and to train talent.
• Interface Compatibility—Shake 2.4 will provide the user with the option of selecting from two graphic user interfaces. The first is the classic Shake interface. The second is the new streamlined interface that has been developed for Tremor. Users will be able to switch between whichever version is most appropriate to the task at hand. This flexibility will make it easier for facilities to collaborate on projects and to train talent.
• Ease-of-Use Improvements—Many ease-of-use improvements are provided in Shake 2.4 to optimize the workflow of artists, including automatic mask creation, color-coding of nodes, improved undo/redo capabilities, disk caching of nodes and many others.

About Shake
Shake is Nothing Real’s award-winning compositing software product line. Shake is a general-purpose image manipulation toolset that provides users with a low-cost, high-performance compositing solution without the need for specialized hardware.

It features a graphic user interface that emphasizes intuitive “process-tree” control features for the most complex image manipulation tasks. This interface, in combination with its speed and quality, enables creatives in film, HDTV, broadcast, post-production and multimedia, a powerful and interactive tool to quickly manipulate high-resolution images in conjunction with the creation of composites, effects and animations.

About Tremor
Tremor Version 1.0 is Nothing Real’s new and widely anticipated non-linear, high-performance compositing system. Tremor marks the most significant new product to be introduced by Nothing Real and supports the company’s commitment to enhance workflow for digital compositing professionals working in HDTV, commercial, video and broadcast.

Tremor is built around a new, simplified and streamlined interface based on mature and production proven technology from the Shake rendering engine—Nothing Real’s flagship product. It will be 100 percent compatible with Shake and its associated rendering engine, so that projects can easily migrate from front-room to back-room to render farms, thus allowing facilities to manage talent and resources more effectively.

An added benefit of that compatibility will be that all third-party plug-ins developed for Shake will be available in Tremor. Tremor is an integrated hardware and software solution running on Hewlett-Packard computers with storage supplied by Ciprico.

Availability and Pricing
Shake Version 2.4 is now available worldwide. Shake 2.4 software is priced at $9,900. Additional render-only network licenses are available at $3,900.

Shake 2.4 is available directly from Nothing Real through the Internet and from the following international resellers: Advanced Technologies (Czech Republic), Filmtools (Germany), Intraware Australia Ltd., Media Business Solutions (Poland), Ordigraphe (Montreal), Post-Logic (France), Spako Media (Korea), Trigital (Spain), Tyrell (United Kingdom), Video Design Systems (Toronto), Video Progetti (Italy) and Visual Processing Japan.

For more information, visit www.nothingreal.com.

[an error occurred while processing this directive]