Shade Professional

[Anonymous]

I recently stumbled upon this software:

http://graphics.smithmicro.com/article/articleview/1785/1/752?sbss=752

It states on their website that it integrates with ArchiCAD. Has anybody seen or used this software before?

The gallery examples look rather impressive, especially the light effects.

http://graphics.smithmicro.com/imagecatalogue/image/list/34?sbss=638

I would be interested to know what people think. For those who may have tried it, is it well integrated with AC? What is the learning curve like etc.

[Dwight]

Shade is a Japanese application that suffered from poor marketing in North America. It came here at a turbulent time and is now jumbled in with Amapi and other pseudo animator products. Shade sent me a form letter asking if i knew anyone who'd like to buy the company - they were that desperate..... Imagine them standing on a street corner at night "Hey… wanna buy a software company, man?"

Nearly a decade ago, it had an Archicad plug-in version, developed in conjunction with Graphisoft Japan called "ArchiLumos." This product failed because even though it made great light, Archicad's weak texture mapping ability wasted the effort.

It has file transfer powers comparable to the 3Ds format where object, surface name and mapping direction are retained, but like with all higher-functioning rendering software, you will be relying on mathematical shaders instead of solely on textures. As such, you must be using new materials unlike Archicad's and developing others. As with all comparable applications, those professional results are not easy. As for learning, they are all similar in challenge.

This is a fine application, but it is slow. I see it as comparable to a parent of Maxwell. It really needs network rendering power.

They claim to be a value in their class - they ARE significantly cheaper it seems, coming in under $1000.

Let me conclude with the same observation that I'd give to anyone curious about LightWave, Cinema, Electric Image or others: Are you looking to change careers? If so, learn one of these products - Cinema 4D a fave, but for sure become a master of 3D Studio. This application has more outside product support than any other and lets you service clients requiring image variety best.

If you want to stay in design, the results you'll immediately get using Artlantis represent the best payback for investment and learning time.

[Anonymous]

Hi Dwight,

Many thanks for such a thorough reply. I currently use Art.Lantis and occaisionly Lightworks, however I am always looking at new software packages. This isn't me wishing to change careers, it's simply a matter of personal interest. I have been looking into C4D and Advanced Render (especially multi-pass renders, which could be very useful), however the price and light effects produced by Shade were enough to catch my attention. Maxwell and VRay would be the ideal pieces of software, however the price and learning curve required for each is the main psychological barrier that has stopped me from pursuing them further. I have begun to use new textures within Art.Lantis and so this would not be a major problem should I aquire Shade, however after your much appreciated advice I think that it would definitely require a demo (at least), not to mention much more research into its inner workings.

Thanks again Dwight

[Dwight]

By all means - be our Shade guy!!! We would all like to see the results.

Artlantis mis-appropriates the name "shader." Especially the new multi-overlay texture assemblies. There are some rudimentary shaders - the tartans and such, but yanking a frequency and color graph around does not a shadermeister make.

Real shaders - procedural shaders - use mathematics to create patterns and are complex beyond belief.

Take my Lightworks. Please!

Making adjustments in the shader box alters a formula repeatedly used to generate a seamless pattern. In LightWorks, there are dozens of options. In Cinema 4D there are hundreds of adjustments for every shader including stochastic and caustic behaviors, sub-surface scattering, etc. So you need a geek dictionary just to know what they are talking about.

[Anonymous]

I notice on the Shade site that the standard edition is only £100 at the current exchange rate. It may well be worth a look. If I do indeed become the "Shade" guy I will be sure to post some examples of my progress.

The complexity of C4D and its render engine does impress me greatly. It would not be necessary if AC would embrace full Lightworks integration (something I imagine you would appreciate yourself Dwight), however until this is available I will continue looking around. In an ideal world the C4D exchange plug-in would be combined with the MaxonForm plug-in so that we had full compatability (something that can be achieved already with a little tweaking), allowing for animation as well. However as I have raised recently in a previous post, MaxonForm seems to be useless as a major BIM tool.

[Dwight]

You'll quickly progress to the Pro application. This is the price you should consider. Still seems like a bargoon.

But in my book, the leading mid-price program - and adapted to architect's needs - is Cinema 4D.

For we users who want to maintain design billables - it is now Artlantis. This version 2.0 is the schnitz. [dried apple slices sometimes spiced with cinnamon]

[Anonymous]

I pretty much agree with you on the Cinema 4D side of things, although it never hurts to look for new ways of doing something.

As for Art.lantis 2.0, my first experience of the demo was far from "the schnitz" I'm afraid. I love the ease of use of version 1.2, however 2.0 was nothing but problematic for me. Firstly, the "Catalogue" window opened to full screen and could not be resized, despite several attempts it seemed to crash and would keep defaulting to hugging the right of the screen at full size. This disabled any hope of drag and drop textures. I also had problems exporting from AC. A friend of mine has also had the same problem, however I use AC10 and he uses AC11 (Both student). He said something about his .atl plug-in saying it was version 1.2. Does he need to update AC11? As for me I found that Art.lantis would reject a lot of my setting from the AC file. After 3 re-installs and several system checks I gave up.

Does anyone have any ideas on what could be causing these problems?

[Dwight]

That looks like a job for Supportman. I am having non of those problems. It does get confused and crash from time to time, and that rotating crystal thingy is creepy, but otherwise okay.

[Anonymous]

I have just tried the demo again out of curiosity and noticed one additional thing. Whenever I import a file from AC10, the Art.Lantis plug-in does say "Art.lantis R-Studio File 1.2". Then upon opening the file within Art.Lantis I receive a message informing me that "This file was created in an older version of Art.Lantis". It asks if I wish to update the sky attributes to that of the new Helidion sky.

Is this common place for exported files or do I need a new plug-in?

I have also spoken to my friend who validates this as the same in AC11 (Build 970).

[Djordje]

Chris wrote:
I have just tried the demo again out of curiosity and noticed one additional thing. Whenever I import a file from AC10, the Art.Lantis plug-in does say "Art.lantis R-Studio File 1.2". Then upon opening the file within Art.Lantis I receive a message informing me that "This file was created in an older version of Art.Lantis". It asks if I wish to update the sky attributes to that of the new Helidion sky.

Is this common place for exported files or do I need a new plug-in?

I have also spoken to my friend who validates this as the same in AC11 (Build 970).

The export plugin for Archicad saving in Artlantins 2 format is not out yet; you can safely export in Artlantis 1.2 format as you do now, and open it in 2.

Check Artlantis web site for the new export plug ins.