Brief: Apple Slashes Price Of Shake 4.1 To $500Brief: Apple Slashes Price Of Shake 4.1 To $500

Apple Computer reported Tuesday that it is slashing the price of its Shake 4.1 compositing software from $3,000 to $500. The 3D compositing, keying, and imaging tracking software typically operates with Apple's Final Cut Studio.

Shake has been used to create prize-winning visual effects for many major movies including for this year's Oscar winner in the category, "King Kong."

"Final Cut Studio customers can retouch their shots with Shake's optical flow technology or add photo realistic visual effects to their productions, even on a shoestring budget," said Rob Schoeben, Apple's vice president of applications product marketing, in a statement.

Shake provides a range of features for Final Cut Studio including simple re-touching to complex 3D compositing. For instance, Shake's optical flow image analysis can be utilized to re-time, track and stabilize shots with precision.