At this point I’d call it more of a legacy approach - they definitely still control the space, but the workflow is quite easily accomplished on other systems.
I’d also add many (SO MANY) of the pro audio and video systems out there are also running Linux, so even with sa mac-focused workflow, many of the pros out there are using Linux (often without any clue that they are).
So to me its similar to Windows on the desktop - its not necessarily the best option in all cases, but its often the path of least resistance. As a result, pretty much all of them buy into an Apple ecosystem from the get-go.
No one in art school cares at all about computers you use. At least that was true when I went. They would just get real confused when the buttons were different
Having been there. Wasn’t my experience. No one cared at all about platforms, not once was that brought up in a critique.
If you could take good pictures, no one cared about the camera.
The brand of paint you used didn’t matter.
people only cared if they could make their work better by using/doing what you did.
Maybe the tools are more important than the art now.
Doesn’t change the reality of production though when it comes to audio and video though. Final Cut started getting… Problematic in flow some years back, Adobe started to make moves before they, you know, did what Adobe does, and BlackMagic bought DaVinci about 15 years ago actually.
At this point, the only places I know of that are using final cut or premiere in their workflow do so for legacy reasons. Many have shifted to resolve, which works quite beautifully on Linux. In the smaller shop realm for audio, reaper is king (which also works beautifully on Linux).
The “need” for a Mac there is pure fabrication.
For modeling, pros are probably using Houdini, though I’d say blender just behind that. Both of which - again, Linux.
About the only thing I can think of where pros are consistently using something not Linux friendly in the creative world is photo editing (Photoshop of course).
Now I will say that pretty much anything a pro shop will use will work on a Mac, and that is to me the main reason they are still at the top. Plus the weird Apple fanboy/elitism that developed around it.
FWIW, Final Cut has gotten a lot better in the last few years. They have walked back pretty much everything from X at this point. I still have not switched back from Premiere and Resolve though. I don’t trust them.
But like it or not, Macs are industry standard and people expect you to use them. Them’s the breaks.
I still have not switched back from Premiere and Resolve though. I don’t trust them.
That is what a lot of folks are still saying (from my purely anecdotal experience).
I don’t think macs are going away FWIW, just saying that its not at all necessary for the overwhelming majority of workflows I’ve come across. Especially with so many internal corp studios being happy with a blackmagic body in their kit.
Apple has some locked down codecs that you can not use without a Mac. Depending on if you can turn away work , you’ll need a Mac for those prorez workflows.
Houdini is mostly used for simulations and procedural modeling. For manual modeling Z-Brush and Maya are still king, especially at the big game studios. Blender is mostly used by indies and students. You couldn’t buy support until recent years so big studios have steered away from using Blender.
There are some animation houses that use their own proprietary software on Linux. Like Pixar has Presto. Though Disney’s own studio uses Maya.
Wasn’t thinking in terms of gaming, but yeah that’s true. Plus you’ll see Rhino and the like especially with architectural renders, I’m painting with a broad brush here.
I was in art school around then and a good portion of us were pirating windows 98 or windows NT. And we were running pirated Photoshop and pirated Illustrator on it…a lot of us pirated everything.
At this point I’d call it more of a legacy approach - they definitely still control the space, but the workflow is quite easily accomplished on other systems.
I’d also add many (SO MANY) of the pro audio and video systems out there are also running Linux, so even with sa mac-focused workflow, many of the pros out there are using Linux (often without any clue that they are).
So to me its similar to Windows on the desktop - its not necessarily the best option in all cases, but its often the path of least resistance. As a result, pretty much all of them buy into an Apple ecosystem from the get-go.
15 years ago you would get laughed out of art school if you didn’t have a Mac. At least that’s the gist I get from my artistic friends.
No one in art school cares at all about computers you use. At least that was true when I went. They would just get real confused when the buttons were different
That’s contrary to what my people have said.
Having been there. Wasn’t my experience. No one cared at all about platforms, not once was that brought up in a critique. If you could take good pictures, no one cared about the camera. The brand of paint you used didn’t matter.
people only cared if they could make their work better by using/doing what you did.
Maybe the tools are more important than the art now.
What years were you in art school? We’re taking 20-15 years ago.
I thought you were talking about something much newer.
Could just be the people you knew or the school. If you partied hard or were a good artist no one gave a fuck about computer platforms.
The only time it mattered is when someone insisted their work was better because of a computer choice and the work sucked.
Probably still the same today.
Doesn’t change the reality of production though when it comes to audio and video though. Final Cut started getting… Problematic in flow some years back, Adobe started to make moves before they, you know, did what Adobe does, and BlackMagic bought DaVinci about 15 years ago actually.
At this point, the only places I know of that are using final cut or premiere in their workflow do so for legacy reasons. Many have shifted to resolve, which works quite beautifully on Linux. In the smaller shop realm for audio, reaper is king (which also works beautifully on Linux).
The “need” for a Mac there is pure fabrication.
For modeling, pros are probably using Houdini, though I’d say blender just behind that. Both of which - again, Linux.
About the only thing I can think of where pros are consistently using something not Linux friendly in the creative world is photo editing (Photoshop of course).
Now I will say that pretty much anything a pro shop will use will work on a Mac, and that is to me the main reason they are still at the top. Plus the weird Apple fanboy/elitism that developed around it.
FWIW, Final Cut has gotten a lot better in the last few years. They have walked back pretty much everything from X at this point. I still have not switched back from Premiere and Resolve though. I don’t trust them.
But like it or not, Macs are industry standard and people expect you to use them. Them’s the breaks.
That is what a lot of folks are still saying (from my purely anecdotal experience).
I don’t think macs are going away FWIW, just saying that its not at all necessary for the overwhelming majority of workflows I’ve come across. Especially with so many internal corp studios being happy with a blackmagic body in their kit.
Apple has some locked down codecs that you can not use without a Mac. Depending on if you can turn away work , you’ll need a Mac for those prorez workflows.
Houdini is mostly used for simulations and procedural modeling. For manual modeling Z-Brush and Maya are still king, especially at the big game studios. Blender is mostly used by indies and students. You couldn’t buy support until recent years so big studios have steered away from using Blender.
There are some animation houses that use their own proprietary software on Linux. Like Pixar has Presto. Though Disney’s own studio uses Maya.
Wasn’t thinking in terms of gaming, but yeah that’s true. Plus you’ll see Rhino and the like especially with architectural renders, I’m painting with a broad brush here.
That was partially because older PCs had rectangular pixels vs a Mac’s square pixels. Square pixels translated better to other mediums.
Edit: I just realized that was more like 25 years ago. God I’m old.
I was in art school around then and a good portion of us were pirating windows 98 or windows NT. And we were running pirated Photoshop and pirated Illustrator on it…a lot of us pirated everything.
I think you mean 25-26 years ago.
In 2009 art workflows were absolutely dominated by Apple devices and when the memes about pretentious mac users in cafes started popping up.
Pirating Windows 98/NT in 2010? Seems a little late for that, no?