Shake 4 – Peachpit 2006

This illustration was created intentionally wider than needed for the DVD or book cover. I wanted the ability to show two sides of the workflow of Shake; technical and artistic. The high-end compositing application affords the user the ability to work both in highly technical and artistic modalities. The result was not rivaled in the industry for many years.

On the left of the composition, the technical layout of compositing operations looks like a scientific flow-graph; angular connections, jut between branches and nodes. On the right, the composition flows much more organically with connections arcing gracefully between combinatorial nodes and imagery. Behind the arcing graph, an image of a sprouting seed brances to the right of the frame. Both sides of the graph are not intended to capture real-world node trees but rather to illustrate the duality that is Shake.

In the center of the composition, two transparent discs overlap to form a lens silhouette. The graphic forms and color tinting hints at the roots of optical compositing and mechanical technique. I focused on this to form a grounding for both sides of the composition. Without the history of optical and mechanical processes, the language and technique of modern-day compositing would be very different.

The final composition was cut into two sections and the left and right halves were used on different publications as is noted in the links below.

Completed spring 2006.

Apple Pro Training Series:
Shake 4
Book
ISBN: 0321256093

Apple Pro Training Series:
Shake SDK
DVD
ISBN: 0321450957
April 2006