FREE Shade 7 designer LE 3D software for CGSociety Members!

[sheppyboy2000]

Looks real good for CGI rendered products and I am definately tempted to give another studio a shot but my main questions are as follows.

How good is this for REAL-TIME purposes?

What kind of industry support does this package receive?

I'm interested, definately. But I want to be certain this package work work well with the game engine I'm currently deving.

[cookepuss]

I own several versions of Shade, on acquired as a result of a product review. I'll offer you my opinion on the product.

How good is this for REAL-TIME purposes?
Limited. This is the type of product that is best suited for still images and some very minor CA work. While one can do some real-time art on it, I would seriously recommend against it. The quality of the poly modeling tools does not even remotely match up to what is offered by the top 5 CG packages. Most real-time artists might feel extremely handicapped by this app. For one thing, the UI and design sensibility are more along the practical side - to a fault even. The UI itself lacks much of the finesse of more polished high end app. I've often heard users describe it as a cross between Hash A:M and Rhino, if one can imagine such a beast. Even then, that description doesn't exactly fit.

Certain operations such as solids/boolean modeling are handled in a less than user friendly manner. The approach, while doable, feels more appropriate for an app designed 10 years ago. I've found that doing some things in Shade can really slow down one's overall workflow. Its an app I like to keep installed for the occasional task, but not much else. Most of what Shade does can be done in other apps and much easier. As far as the CA tools go, they're so basic that they're not worth mentioning. Same with the rendering. You'll often have to work against the app's core limitations to get high quality restults.

What kind of industry support does this package receive?
At major studios? Little to less than none. Many of the users I've encountered seem to be hobbyists or freelancers. Outside of Japan, Shade has very little brand recognition when compared to some of the better known apps. It has a very loyal Eastern following and has been known for some strong community support over there. In the USA it is mostly an unknown quantity - despite having been available over here since at least v5. Because of its overall design, its hard to work into an already established pipeline. Data exchange can be accomplished via standard formats, but the implementation of those formats isn't exactly the most robust.

I'm interested, definately. But I want to be certain this package work work well with the game engine I'm currently deving.
IIRC, I think that 3D World Magazine put this app on a disc some months ago. If you're a regular reader of that magazine then you might already have it. As far as game work goes, I'd skip Shade. It's not really that type of package. "Unconventional" & "Uneven" are two words that probably best describe this app, IMHO. For real-time work, you can do much better. If you're into high poly stills and are willing to sacrifice a lot of the creature comforts of a high end app then Shade isn't too bad. (Btw, the differences between the pro & lite versions don't really impact most users. Unless you're into super high resolution renders and such there isn't a massive difference between the core app and the pro version, at least not where it counts.)

Anyway, that's my opinion. Some people might love Shade to pieces. Not me. Its a nice promo on the part of CGS, but I don't see it driving memberships up much. There are better apps, some even totally free and unrestricted (eg. Blender).

[stew]

But I want to be certain this package work work well with the game engine I'm currently deving.
I see "DirectX" listed in the export formats of my copy of 8 Pro, but I don't know if that includes bones and animation or not. If it helps, Shade comes with an SDK so you can write your own export/import filters.

[MayaZbrushMax]

It's a pity that still i am just the Free Members....

[TwinSnakes]

It seems their "pro" level renderer (callisto) is just a mix of the scanline, ray tracing, path tracing options offered by the standard renderer.

Shade kinda reminds of the an early C4D with its object heirarchy and some rudimentary form of "tags".

Only version 7 of the sdk is available. It's modeller is pretty much stone-age. But with modern graphic file format support, that's not really a hurdle. Although I did like the fact that it supported blobbies (called metasurfaces internally). Imagine throwing 200 different colored balls of goo in the air, and as they stick together, their shapes and colors blend according with respect to proximity.

Shade 8 has all the latest bells and whistles: GI (radiosity & photon mapping & path trace), bucket renderer, caustics (photon mapping), adaptive subdivision, DOF (which I was VERY impressed with. i.e., the internal glare feature is DOF sensitive), motion blur, IBL (HDR, OpenEXR), sky system, and a pretty standard material system (layers, masks, etc.)

GI:
The demo scene for radiosity took about 15 minutes on my 2.6ghz P4 just to calculate the solution (which does not include the actual render time). Upside is you can save the solution. Photon mapping is not view dependant. You can generate a photon map, save it (internal gzip compression) and move the camera without worry. Which is great for fly-through animation. You can also mix photon mapping with path tracing down to the individual object level if necessary (strength, inclusion, and exclusion)

Welp, that's my 2 cents.

[Nichod]

Nice to get a free application. But I think it would have been of more benefit to give away Carrara or even Truespace then Shade. The program is very buggy and limited in its toolset. Even the new version, while it may look appealing, is a hack job implementation of modern features.

[Papa Lazarou]

I think they're giving it away because shade are trying to crack the western market. The more people using it, the more busy their user forums and the better it will be able to attract more users. The trouble is they don't have enough users to make it a more attractive proposition at the moment.

[zenake]

i wish i could get it but the free membership is holding me back and i dont think i'll get a regular CGS membership for a while.

Zz.

[cookepuss]

Like I said above, if you bought the June issue of 3D World Magazine then you already have Shade 7 LE. I think that a lot of this site's members probably buy that magazine anyway, which makes this offer a bit less meaningful.

[R10k]

Also, some people also have 7LE because they answered a basic survey online.

[WKang]

would this software be good for a person who is new in the 3d world?
Cause i cant afford any big name softwares.

[Bliz]

You can afford Blender

www.blender.org (http://www.blender.org)

[JuanManuel]

I use it a lot for architectural renders. The interface is certainly spartan, and the workflow is certainly different from every other software I know, and yes, there are some features that could be improved (just like any other software in the planet).

Of course, being so different from everything in the 3d world out there can lead to misconceptions and difficulties integrating the program with the pipeline. For me however, the integration has not been that hard, but I am a freelancer, so I can basically decide how I work to get things done.

What I like most in Shade, is it's rigid hierarchy ordering of absolutely everything, and the flexibility in modelling with curved surfaces, which is something like nurbs, but much more efficient and easier to work with, IMO.

The lack of a large non-japanese speaking Shade user community has been a drawback, but those that do exist are quite friendly and helpful. This in a sense has been positive, as there is no real "super guru", so the feedback between knowledgeable users and newbies is much more cordial, with virtually no condescending attitudes. I have even done some simple tutorials dealing with some Shade features, mainly because I found no previous information on how to do something with the program, to share my experiences on how I got it done.

Anyone in doubt of Shade's capabilities should check out Kazuhiko in the portfolio section. His work is simply amazing.

[Daido]

JuanManuel,

Do you know anything about Shade's PoserFusion feature? Does it require and installation of Poser to function?

Thanks

[stew]

JuanManuel,

Do you know anything about Shade's PoserFusion feature? Does it require and installation of Poser to function?
Yes, it does require a licensed Poser installation.

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