Shade 8 Coming in Fall 2005

[Tami]

Los Angeles, CA; August 15, 2005 -- E frontier, formerly Curious Labs, publishers of the Poser graphic design software, announced at SIGGRAPH 2005 that in the Fall of 2005 it will release Shade 8, a new version of its 3D modeling and rendering software. The program boasts network rendering, a stronger modeling engine with polygon mesh editing, better integration with Poser, a new toon renderer, faster Radiosity calculation, and an improved Callisto renderer.

Shade 8 offers an intuitive interface and the availability of more than 5000 3D objects in several libraries to aid Architectural Design, Product Development, Visualization, and Character Modeling. The program boasts network rendering, a stronger modeling engine with polygon mesh editing, better integration with Poser, a new toon renderer, faster Radiosity calculation, and an improved Callisto renderer. The program also imports many popular CAD formats to create sophisticated high-end renderings.
For character modeling and rendering professionals, Shade provides a direct link to Poser for importing and exporting figures and poses. Poser users can use Shade to modify models, create props, or render images with unlimited size.

Among Shade 8's features are:
-- Boolean and Bezier modeling, Polygon mesh modeling and auto-smoothing of curves to detail projects.
-- Global Illumination Renderer includes Photon Mapping, Path Tracing, Raytracing and Radiosity-with-physics for photo-realistic imagery. Callisto, the rendering plug-in with global illumination and detailed settings, has been upgraded. A translucent shader and metallic shader have been added, and aberration is now supported.
-- Network rendering and render queue with support for unlimited nodes (professional version) or two nodes (standard version). Shade is able to automatically search all available ShadeGrid servers that are running on the same local area network and display the IP addresses in the preference dialog.
-- Supports pixel depth in 32-bits, 64-bits and 128-bits for all rendering image output.
-- Improved import of OBJ, IGES 5.3, DXF, 2D Illustrator formats.
PoserFusion 2TM, enabling, hosting and playback of Poser scenes within Shade.
-- OBJ, IGES5.3, DXF format support for integration into a CAD-based environment.
-- 100 levels of Undo and Redo. ShadeExplorer U.I. improved with instant file preview and added keyboard control.
-- Shade integrates with Poser, ArchiCAD, Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop, as well as other 2D, 3D and CAD applications.

All purchases of Shade 7 made after Aug 1, 2005 will be eligible for a free upgrade to Shade 8. Details are available on the e frontier web site.

Two versions of Shade 8 will be available to suit different users' needs:
Shade 8 standard -- 3D graphics suite for architects, designers, illustrators and graphic artists.
Shade 8 professional -- Advanced modeling, lighting and rendering tools for architecture and design professionals.

E frontier America, a wholly-owned subsidiary of e frontier Inc., designs, develops, and publishes 3D software tools for artists, illustrators, designers, and animators. The company is headquartered in Scotts Valley, California. For more information, go to www.e-frontier.com.