Is there a reason why nearly every animator and studio uses a Mac? What can it do for animation that Windows can't?

Is there a reason why nearly every animator and studio uses a Mac? What can it do for animation that Windows can't?

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Not crash.

Elaborate lie. Somewhere along the line macs were sold as being "better for art", when there's no discernible difference.

That doesn't make sense. All the major art and animation tools do the same things on Windows as they do on Mac.

Not quite

There was once a difference, it is just brand recognition now

They're even cross compatible between Mac OS and Windows versions of programs now so it doesn't even have 'well I need it because my coworkers all use Mac' anymore

Apple has kept up the charade because it's hard to disprove and they always keep esoteric bs "facts" about their specs in their pocket for if someone ever tries to call them on their bs

Sup Forums here,
also I've been an intern for a small animation studio in Europe a few years ago.
Let me grab a beer

There reall was a time that graphics design software really was better on the Mac. Some packages were Mac-only, some were Mac/PC but the Mac version was simply better (like... MS Office is available on the Mac but its always a generation behind, and buggy at that).

That time has long, long past. But there is a lot of inertia in businesses, if the 50 year old manager came up on the Mac 20 years ago then he is going to keep buying Macs. Also, colleges - I see university art programs still requiring Macs because the professors cut their teeth on Macs, they're only going to change when kicked dragging and screaming into the 21st century.

Mac is basically just UNIX with a more user friendly UI.

You'll find that bigger studios with a dedicated IT department use linux, because you don't need a new license for each computer and it's really customizable for every person's needs, software-wise.

It's a meme to a large extent, as there's plenty of production on Windows as well. Especially for really specialty stuff, that is less likely to have a Mac version of the software available.

Absolutely nobody uses Linux, or anything other than Windows or Mac, in commercial production.

Stop lying.

m.slashdot.org/story/59483

Not even him. The big dogs went Linux a fucking decade ago

mac had a better screen and it was supposedly more secure, also custom software, but now they're such weak machines and cost so much money that you can get an off the shelf $500 tower and have it out perform a $1800 imac in every respect.

I worked at MPC and they used GNU in almost every department.

The only people who had Mac terminals were the production managers, I think.

There's great computers that run windows, but also absolutely shitty ones, especially at the retail level. Since 99% of the time, if you're using an Apple OS, you're using a Mac, that guarantees a consistent level of quality.

all real animation software has a linux port for a reason and lets not even get into 3d

That "article" is extremely suspicious. It seems like sponsored content.
What fucking software did they use on Linux?
Give me a list. Preferably of software that's actually used in real production, not just by broke hobbyists.

>supposedly more secure
This has always been a hilarious meme to me and I'm so happy that time has proven it to be horseshit

The only reason Apple EVER was able to claim this is because once upon a time Apple had such a small market share that no one ever bothered to write viruses for it

>Give me a list
everything that isn't flash.....

Most of the stuff you hear about macs are urban legends/stuff that doesn't happen anymore.

During late 90s/early 2000s, macs were just better at handling Adobe stuff. That's why they started dominating "creative" fields like animation (but also music, video editing, sometimes comics etc).
Right now, that advantage just isn't there anymore.
But that was a huge part of Apple's profits, so they just couldn't let it go that easily.
That's why they tried EVERYTHING to keep that market.

For example, they're ultra cheap. They're probably the most overpriced pieces of hardware out there, but that's only if you're a normal consumer.
They currently have any sort of deal if you're buying them as a studio, and they usually come with everything you need to do your job. All the licenses for the software you'll use are usually included. That seems like nothing, but fuck it really isn't if you aren't a fucking major like Disney. And even if you are, you're more likely to go for the "cheapest" way (as long as it doesn't interfere with your work, obviously).
Look at mac pros (that black gay cylinder): probably the most overpriced thing you can buy as causal user, yet they're ridiculously cheap if you buy many of them with a contract.
Sometime you "rent" them (pay a fixed license to get, let's say, 100 of them for two years), they get replaced for free if anything happens, and Apple takes care of any problem without requiring you to pay extra money.

>What fucking software did they use on Linux?
Maya
Nuke
Houdini
Katana
Shotgun
and they usually went with Renderman for rendering

I'm not saying you're completely wrong, but in my experience that's the standard of production.

Former AppleCare employee here. Tier 2 Senior Advisor. If that shitty job taught me anything is that if you are computer smart, but too lazy to keep up with wanting to replace parts, Macs are fucking great.

They last long, but it’s still a computer are some shit gets recalled.

If you want to drop that kind of money, get AppleCare or else you are going to fucking hate your life if you have having issues.

Apple has a policy that if 3 hardware repairs have been done, if a 4th is needed, replace that shit.


Also if you live in the middle of bum fuck nowhere. Don’t bother getting a desktop. Get a Maccook Pro or a PC. No apple store or authorized service member near you = shit out of luck. They won’t msil you internal hardware parts for iMacs.

Pretty much all this. And now people in the media industry have spent most of their careers working on macs, and who for obvious reasons teach the next generation of people in the field using macs, so there's obviously a lot of inertia.

>Sup Forums has a surprisingly good Sup Forums thread

>Absolutely nobody uses Linux, or anything other than Windows or Mac, in commercial production.

Now that is the most dumbest shit I've heard. I worked at a render farm in Santa Monica and the blade machines were running in CentOS.

That's not a list.

But they will for Macbooks?

>only 26 posts yet
give it time...

It's more than that - Apple cuts deals to universities (at least in the US) so that they'll stock their computer labs, in whole or in part, with macs. It was always funny to see the labs at my uni where people were lined up for the PCs while the mac side was empty.

Other than that, it's a collection of factors. If you were forced to work with them, you probably realized the "OS X is more stable than Windows" thing was more than a meme, it sometimes could make a difference while using "heavy" software (yet, to be fair, I stopped noticing that difference around 5-8 years ago; maybe Windows didn't get that better, but third party software did if you ask me, and that makes up for it)
So maybe it's a bit less likely to crash, but it's not only that. iMacs, for example, are nearly noiseless, which can be a great pro if you work with video/audio editing.
Macs also lasts several years compared to standard prebuilts you can normally buy.

But, most of all, this
Let's get that straight: "artists" aren't usually into tech on a professional level. They're only competent as far as their job require them to be. And macs are great with that, because they're really way more user-friendly than the norm, if you aren't already good with computers (mainly Windows, though; Linux users can make Os X feel like a fancy distro, if they want).
You'll hate their systems with passion if you know how to use Windows, but if you don't, they can be really comfortable.
The many touch gestures (working great with graphic tablets), the drag and drop logic applied to everything, the way the system handles graphical files and previews; it all can make your job faster if you're working in such "creative" fields.

Take all of that, and the result is what this user said

kek

Cool thanks