Art Model vs Shade
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Art Model
Easily pose and morph unlimited human models with intuitive drag-and-drop controls. Create unique characters with a powerful morphing system and enhance scenes with props and background images. Ideal for artists and designers.
- Pose unlimited human models
- Intuitive drag-and-drop posing
- Powerful morphing system for unique characters
- Add props and background images
- Split view editing for dual angles
- Realistic male and female models
- Wooden mannequin reference
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Create stunning pose references in seconds. Just tap a control point and drag — no complicated joint rotations, no learning curve. Perfect for figure drawing, character design, illustration, comics, manga, animation, and storyboarding. From quick gesture studies to detailed anatomy work, Art Model gives you unlimited creative freedom. Pose realistic male and female 3D models, classic wooden mannequins, and shape them into any body type you can imagine. ◆ EFFORTLESS POSING Tap a hand, foot, or head and drag it exactly where you want it. Our advanced inverse kinematics system handles the joints automatically, so you can focus on the pose — not the mechanics. Includes preset full-body poses and hand poses to get you started fast. ◆ UNLIMITED BODY TYPES A full morphing system lets you transform any model: child to adult, skinny to muscular, fat, pregnant, or even fantastical creatures. Individual morphs fine-tune specific parts like arms, legs, chest, and more. ◆ EXPRESSIVE FACES Bring characters to life with facial expression morphs. Adjust happiness, anger, surprise, sadness and more to give your figures real personality. ◆ BUILD FULL SCENES Add unlimited models to a single scene and pose them together. Enrich your composition with props: chairs, tables, vehicles, weapons, trees, and geometric shapes. Props can be attached to your model's hands and follow movement naturally. ◆ CLOTHING & STYLING Mix and match outfits, hats, and helmets for both male and female models to design characters for any scenario — from fantasy heroes to everyday people. ◆ SPLIT VIEW EDITING View your model from two camera angles at the same time. Adjust poses with precision without constantly rotating the scene — a huge time-saver for complex compositions. ◆ REFERENCE IMAGES Import background images to stage your scenes in real or imagined environments. Ideal for matching perspectives, blocking compositions, or planning illustrations. ◆ ADVANCED LIGHTING Sculpt mood and form with flexible lighting controls — perfect for dramatic reference shots or anatomy studies. FEATURES AT A GLANCE - Realistic male and female 3D models + wooden mannequin - Fast drag-to-pose with inverse kinematics - Full-body and individual body-part morphs - Facial expression morphs - Unlimited models per scene - Clothing, hats, and helmets - Props: vehicles, furniture, weapons, shapes - Props attach to hands and follow movement - Split view dual-camera editing - Background image import - Advanced lighting controls - Preset poses and hand poses - Basic hair options - Save and load poses and morphs - Intuitive touch controls: pinch to zoom, drag to rotate and pan Whether you're a professional illustrator, concept artist, comic creator, manga artist, animator, sculptor, fitness instructor, or just learning to draw — Art Model is built to make your creative process faster, easier, and more enjoyable. Download Art Model today and pose without limits. Works on iPhone. Best experienced on iPad.
Shade
Design complex visual effects with a node-based shader editor. Create and render real-time shader graphs with intuitive controls and extensive node options. Export your creations for use in game development and other applications.
- Node-based shader graph creation
- Real-time rendering preview
- Connection stacking and automatic swizzling
- Over 100 shader nodes
- Drag-and-drop image import
- AR previews including Face AR
- Export to Unity 3D and Codea
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Shade transforms your device into a professional node-based shader editor. Build stunning, connected shader graphs that render in real time You'll find full support for keyboard shortcuts, drag-and-drop, and documentation built right in Once you're done, export your shader out to Unity 3D or load it straight into Codea. Use them in your games, apps, or anything you make Put your finger on the glass and start creating FEATURES • Connection stacking: no need for explicit arithmetic nodes. Just plug multiple outputs into a single input. Tap to change how they're blended • Automatic swizzling: connect anything to anything. Shade will figure it out and swizzle your connection. Tap the little circle to re-wire the logic • Over 100 nodes for building your shaders, tap any node for help • Live physically-based render preview • Drag-and-drop images right into your graph • Full keyboard support • AR previews, including Face AR for building shaders right on your... face • Video tutorials
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: Art Model at $4.99 against Shade's $19.99. Art Model also leads on in-app purchases (none vs 4) and iOS requirement (10.0 vs 15.6). Shade's advantage is rating (4.3 vs 3.2) and update cadence (every 6 weeks vs every 17 months). On ratings volume, ads, chart position and device support there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Art Model costs $4.99 and Shade $19.99 up front. Shade sells 4 one-off in-app purchases. Art Model asks for nothing beyond the download.
Shade holds the better App Store score, 4.3 against 3.2. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 56 and 126 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 51% of Art Model's written reviews are positive against 64% of Shade's.
Art Model ships an update every 17 months, Shade every 6 weeks. Both last shipped on October 26, 2026.
| Parameter | Art Model | Shade |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $4.99 — better | $19.99 |
| Rating | 3.2 (56 ratings) | 4.3 (126 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 51.0% of reviews | 63.8% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 56 | 126 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 17 months | Every 6 weeks — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free — better | Free with in-app purchases |
| Best chart rank | #87 — better | #170 |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 10.0 — better | 15.6 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 313 MB | 185 MB |
| Age rating | 12+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Tomi Nevalainen | Two Lives Left |
Customer experience
Art Model
Shade
Bugs and requests
Art Model
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
Shade
Reported bugs
12 issues- Curvature node crashes the program
- Closing function node crashes and saves incorrectly
- Failed to create new shaders
- iOS 17 crashes the app
- App crashes when opening most shaders
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- Unable to report crashes with debug info
- No auto-saves leading to lost progress
- Internal error preventing shader opening after purchase
- Corrupted or version mismatch error when creating/opening shaders
- Cannot reactivate from Beta version after official release
- Exported shaders don't match in Unity
- App requires payment to create shaders
Requested features
20 requests- Edit shader code manually
- Add Mac support
- Port Blender to iOS
- Add UE4 support
- Add light node (direction, position)
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- Export to Metal/Blender
- Add experimental ray tracing option
- Add support for exporting ShaderGraph or ASE formats
- Add feature to change texture of the object
- Add support for Unreal Engine 4
- Add support for Godot
- Add support for camera/touch inputs
- Add more export options
- Add translation to Chinese
- Support manual shader compilation besides nodes
- Add basic PBR materials folder export
- Add unlit shader for output
- Add gyro, ALS, accelerometer, heart-rate inputs
- Add multi-select
- Adjust long hold-tap gesture time
In-app purchases
Art Model
No in-app purchases
Shade
- 14-day TrialFree
- Shade ProFree
- Shade Pro UpgradeFree
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- Shade Standard$15.99









