Introduction

Shale is a review and approval platform built for 2D and 3D content — enabling stakeholders to give feedback directly in 3D without needing to learn complex tools, and getting that feedback back into the hands of artists in real-time.

Designed for teams across game design, architecture, VFX, interior design and architecture.

Who is Shale for?

Creative Professionals

Anyone creating, sharing and looking for feedback on shared documents.

Game Studios

Review levels, assets, and environments with your team and clients.

Architects

walk through models and collect structured feedback from stakeholder.

VFX Teams

annotate renders and 3D scenes with context-aware notes tied to camera view.

Interior Designers

Interior Design** — share notes on photos with contractors and give clients a great way to see their new decor and leave feedback for contractors.

First Steps

graph TD
  A(Sign Up For An Account)
  A --> B(Create Organization)
  B --> C(👉 I Am A Creator) & D(👉 I Am A Reviewer)

  click C href "/shale-docs/creator/creator-quick-start" "Creator Quick Start"
  click D href "/shale-docs/reviewer" "Reviewer Docs"

  style C fill:#ef4723,color:#fff,stroke:#ef4723,cursor:pointer
  style D fill:#ef4723,color:#fff,stroke:#ef4723,cursor:pointer

Basic Process

1. Create your content
2. Mark the area you want reviewed and export to the Shale App
3. Send reviewers a link to your Shale project on the app, or choose a project and asset to open and review
4. Reviewers annotate directly on a representation of the 3D environment using the brush engine and comment tools
5. Feedback flows back into your DCC as embedded comment threads with approval states
6. Iterate, resolve, and track the full chain of custody through to final sign-off

Platforms

For reviewers - Shale runs in a browser on any device, is multi touch and stylus enabled on tablets!2 For creators - Shale is currently supports:

• Blender Direct Integration
  • Blender Direct Environment Capture
  • Blender Direct 3D models Upload
  • Blender Direct Render Upload
• 2D Images (PNG/JPG/EXR)
• 360 Images from cameras such as Insta360