Re: What do you think...I still think it stinks!!!

[Jus] "If I were a head of tech ops at a large facility, having forked out $000's for a large number of Shake seats at $3k a pop, I would be seething about my outlay, and then I would be seething about the cost of re-traing staff, then I would seeth about seeking advice for a replacement software. No end of seething."

IF... if my Dad had had breasts, he could have been my Mom, but he didn't and so I call him, "Dad."

I have talked to many of my friends in the industry about this and they are as I expected: They have seen tools come and go and they simply amortize their purchases and make money on them, moving to something better when it's time.

A single seat of Shake originally sold in the beginning for $100,000 a seat as I recall way back when it was Nothing Real Shake. Many big studios bought in back then...

So $50,000 for an engineering license that allows them to have the source code and re-engineer at will is hardly going to anger the real studios that have a large number of Shake stations.

For the rest? Well, smart companies leverage their moves and in doing so bring large numbers of their customer base along with them. Apple is a smart company, I suspect that they will make the kind of moves that will build on the momentum they have attained over the last few years.

[Jus] "If I were a shake op, I would be seething about having to learn fusion, nuke or C* to the level I know Shake. I would worry where I could get some downtime for the reskilling; I would worry about my shop's committment to Shake and how their workflow might be altered in the near future to accommodate new tools... Basically, if you've invested in Shake, either as a facility or as an artist with a skill, the cynical dropping of the product will cause you big problems and you will have to jump ship sooner or later."

It's funny, I have heard this argument in this very forum levied numerous times over the years in regards to Combustion itself.

Myself? I suspect that as I have said to many here at the Cow over the last few years, what happened to the stuff Apple bought from Ray Feeney and Silicon Grail -- stuff that was in Chalice and Rayz? I suspect we'll see a hybrid/fusion (pun intended) that leverages what Ray & Company were up to at Silicon Grail, fused into what the Shake team had developed. And one of the funniest things that people have forgotten and don't talk about is that Ray Feeney was part of the Houdini team and that part of his settlement with them was that he walked away with the rights to co-develop what was in Houdini. Where did those rights go in the Apple deal with Silicon Grail? Two guesses? ;o)

Humans hate change but as Dear Ole Dad the Breastless