Shake 2.5: About This Guide |
For new goodies, jump to What's New.
Although not an absolute requirement to use Shake, a 3-button mouse is strongly recommended as it greatly enhances the Shake workflow. A 3-button mouse provides quick access to context menus and navigational shortcuts. Shake also supports the middle scroll wheel of a 3-button mouse. If you do not have access to a 3-button mouse, however, you can press Ctrl and click the mouse button in the Shake interface to show context menus.
If you are new to Shake, you are encouraged to try the Basic and Intermediate Tutorials for an idea of how things work, or at least say you did when you call in for support. You can then tramp through the Advanced Tutorials to understand specific topics.
To understand how things go together, try the Overview sections. These discuss the engine features of the software, and general compositing concepts and how they apply in Shake.
Each function is listed out in the Functions By Class or Functions By Names sections.
One day when you are really in a deep funk, check out the Cookbook, since it has little tidbits that are not really important enough to be tutorials, but are swank all the same.
Note: The use of the Backspace key in the Shake documentation refers to the Macintosh delete key (the key located below F12). The use of the Delete key refers to the Macintosh del key (grouped with home, page up, page down, etc.).
If 800+ pages of documentation aren't enough, hook up with the highend2d listserver at http://www.highend2d.com/shake/listserver/. There's a Forum, too, but all the real action's on the email list server.
And now, on to the shameless plug:
For a general-purpose introduction to the concepts of digital compositing, we have included Ron Brinkmann's 1996 SIGGRAPH Course on Digital Compositing. It is included under Swell Stuff - Brinkmann Course. You can consider it a preview of his book on the same subject, entitled The Art and Science of Digital Compositing. Buy it now from Amazon.com. It's a great explanation of just about everything you might want to know about, well, the art and science of digital compositing. |
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