Apple Shake 4 - Manual (Page 1015)

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The Shake Command-Line Manual
Shake started in its infancy as a command-line compositor—you can conceivably
execute a 500-node script that is typed out in a Terminal. “Conceivably,” but not
practically, since nodes such as
Primatte , Stabilize , QuickPaint , and RotoShape have
unwieldy formats. And, of course, you would have to type out 500 nodes on the
command line, which is impractical. However, using the Terminal remains an ideal
method to execute many daily image-processing functions, such as:
• Image resizing
• Bit depth or channel reordering
• Standardized color correcting (log to lin conversion, gamma corrections, and so on)
• Converting file format
• Flipbook-rendering an image sequence
• Executing scripts
• Accessing image information
• Quick compositing of 3D-rendered elements over backgrounds
These functions can be rendered in the command line more quickly and efficiently
than in the graphical interface (if you are comfortable with typing in the Terminal),
since they involve relatively straightforward commands. The other major use of the
command line is to execute scripts that you have created in the interface and then
saved to disk.
This section discusses some general principles about the command-line shell, and then
lists several examples. The last section is a list of frequently used functions. Since every
node can potentially be used, this not a complete list.
Note: All example images are located in the doc/pix directory. All examples assume you
are in this directory or below, as noted.
Viewing, Converting, and Writing Images
Shake does three basic things on the command line: It executes image operations,
executes scripts, or views images. The following are some simple examples to start the
discussion.