Santa Monica-based Shade, founded in 2009 by company principal and award-winning VFX Director Bryan Godwin, is a leader in the short-form CG market. The studio is defined by its flexible nature and ability to bring feature film-quality pipelines and workflows to short-format projects in collaboration with outside production companies, providing director- and agency-focused VFX in a comfortable, interactive creative environment that brings their vision to life from planning (boards, animatics), to production (VFX planning, on-set supervision), to post (editorial, animation, effects).

Shade has developed a custom, in-house suite of software that facilitates rapid work flow and maximum flexibility to produce top-quality work more efficiently and cost-effectively than their larger competitors. The current A-level talent roster includes CG/VFX Supervisor Dan Dixon, Head of Production Sheri Patterson, EP Amy Massingale-Hassler, Technical Director John Riddle, and Animator Greg Breitzman. The VES-affiliated team's notable recent efforts include campaigns for Time Warner and Hewlett Packard.