Shake: Expressions, Scripting and Macros

In this lecture, Matt Linder discusses the powerful flexibility of using the command line and expressions to take your compositing to a new level of speed and efficiency. Matt begins with basic Unix commands for your terminal or shell, showing how to navigate around directories and files, and leads into Shake commands that demonstrate the advantages of command line workflow. Command line tasks run much more efficiently when you do not need to load a user-interface. Matt shows how to composite, resize, color correct, transform and convert your images from the command line. He teaches how to set up batch scripts to run multiple tasks for nighttime renders or a distributed render, and how to build template scripts for repetitive tasks like title slates, wedges, video to film or film to video conversions. Matt uses simple math expressions to add new functionality to Shake, accessing and altering data anywhere in the workflow, linking node parameters, or creating random noise or sine wave expressions. He shows how to customize Shake's interface, how to build your own Macros, and how to build your own Viewer Look-Up-Table.

• Unix Commands
  
• Working Via Command Line
  
• Command Line Scripting
  
• Batch Scripting
  
• Repetitive Task Utilities
  
• Color-X Expressions
  
• Expression Functions & Variables
  
• Creating Your Own Macros
  
• Installing 3rd Party Plugins
  
• Customizing Shake's Interface

1. Introduction
2. Terminal and Shells
3. Unix Commands
4. Command Line
5. Expression Linking
6. Expressions, Variables and Math Functions
7. Creating Local Variables
8. Creating Macros
9. Customizing the User Interface
10. Creating a Custom Viewer Lut
11. Installing Plugins
12. Putting It All Together

• Product Code: MLI01
• ISBN: 1-59762-954-5
• UPC: 805366014933
• Duration: 330 minutes
• Formats: DVD-ROM

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Matt Linder

Lead Lighting Technical Director
Rhythm & Hues

Matt Linder has worked on over fifty feature films, including Elektra, Garfield, X-Men 2, Daredevil, Ghost Ship and Scooby Doo. Matt got his start at Kodak's Motion Picture Film division in Hollywood, where he learned all aspects of motion picture film and cinematography. Later he joined Kodak's Cineon team where he contributed to the birth of digital compositing. From there Matt went to Pacific Title and Art Studio as Lead Compositor and Effects Artist for four years. Currently Matt works as a Lead Lighting Technical Director at Rhythm & Hues, where he is sequence lighting the film The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe. When Matt is not pushing pixels, he's pushing sound waves around LA with his music projects "The Mood of Space" and "Nerve Picnic".