3D computer graphics software

3D computer graphics software refers to programs used to create 3D computer-generated imagery. There are typically many stages in the "pipeline" that studios use to create 3D objects for film and games, and this article only covers some of the software used. Note that most of the 3D packages have a very plugin-oriented architecture, and high-end plugins costing tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars are often used by studios. Larger studios usually create enormous amounts of proprietary software to run alongside these programs.

If you are just getting started out in 3D, one of the major packages is usually sufficient to begin learning. Remember that 3D animation can be very difficult, time-consuming, and unintuitive; a teacher or a book will likely be necessary. Most of the high-end packages have free versions designed for personal learning.

Major packages

A comprehensive comparison of significant 3D packages can be found at CG Society Wiki and TDT3D 3D applications 2007 comparisons table..

Commercial

• 3ds Max (Autodesk), originally called 3D Studio MAX. 3ds Max is used in many industries that utilize 3D graphics. It is used in the video game industry for developing models and creating cinema cut-scenes. It is used in architectural visualizations because it is highly compatible with AutoCAD--also developed by Autodesk. Additionally 3ds Max is used in film production, one contemporary film being Kaena: The Prophecy. With its price of around $3500 USD, it is one of the more expensive products in the market for this type of work. 3ds Max is available for Windows.

• AC3D (Inivis) is another 3D modeling application that began in the 90's on the Amiga platform. While it is used in a number of industries, MathWorks actively recommends it in many of their aerospace related articles due to price and compatibility. Additionally it is the first commercial 3D modeler to integrate full support for exporting models to the metaverse platform Second Life. AC3D is priced in the range of $79 USD and is available for Mac OS X, Windows and Linux. While AC3D does not feature its own renderer, it can generate output files for both RenderMan and POV-Ray among others.

• Cinema 4D (MAXON) is a slightly lighter package than the others in its basic configuration. The software is claimed to be artist-friendly, and is designed with the none technical user in mind and has a lower entry cost because due to a modular ala-cart design for adding functions. For example, a module called BodyPaint allows artists to draw textures directly onto the surface of models. It is also available for Mac OS X, Windows and Linux.

• Electric Image Animation System (EI Technology Group) is a 3D animation and rendering package available on both Mac OS X and Windows. Mostly known for its rendering quality and rendering speed it does not include a built-in modeler. EIAS features the ability to handle very large polygon counts. Recently, the blockbuster film "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl" and the Television hit "Lost" utilized the software.

• form-Z (autodessys, Inc.) is a general purpose solid/surface 3D modeler. Its primary usage is modeling, and it also features rendering and animation support. form-Z claims users involved in architecture, interior design, illustration, product design, and set design. Its default renderer uses the LightWorks rendering engine for raytracing and radiosity. form-Z also supports Plugins and Scripts and has rendering support via Next Limit's Maxwell Renderer. It has Import/Export capabilities and was first released in 1991. It is currently available for both Mac OS X and Windows. The price for this software ranges from $1495-$2390USD based on output quality.

• Houdini (Side Effects Software) is used for visual effects, and character animation as well as used in Disney's The Wild. Commercial licenses of Houdini include unlimited copies of Side Effects Software's hybrid micropolygon-raytracer renderer, Mantra, but Houdini also has built-in support for commercial renderers like Pixar's RenderMan and mental ray. There are two versions of Houdini, Houdini Escape ($1,995 USD) and Houdini Master ($7,995 USD). For non-commercial users, Side Effects Software offers the free Houdini Apprentice personal learning edition, which places a small watermark on images, and Houdini Apprentice HD, a $99 USD package that does not watermark renders.

• LightWave 3D (NewTek) originally developed on for the Amiga, LightWave 3D was originally bundled as part of the Video Toaster package and entered the market as a low cost way for TV production companies to create quality CG for their programming. It first gained public notoriety with its use in the TV series "Babylon 5". Contemporary use in TV and movie production can be seen with the 2004 recreated Battlestar Galactica series, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and the film 300 (film). It is priced at $795 USD and is available for both Windows and Mac OS X.

• Massive is a 3D animation system for generating crowd-related visual effects, targeted for use in film and television. Originally developed for controlling the large-scale CGI battles in the Lord of the Rings, Massive Software has become an industry standard for digital crowd control in high end animation. Recently, the software has been utilized for blockbuster feature films including Happy Feet, King Kong, and I, Robot. It is available for various Unix and Linux platforms as well as Windows.

• Maya (Autodesk) is currently used in the film and television industry. Maya has a high learning curve but has developed over the years into an application platform in and of itself though extendability via its MEL programming language. A common alternative to using the default built in rendering system named mental ray is Pixar's Renderman. In 2005, Autodesk (makers of AutoCAD), acquired Alias--the original creator of Maya. Maya comes in two versions: Maya Complete ($1999 USD) and Maya Unlimited ($6999 USD). There is also Maya Personal Learning Edition, which is for non-commercial use and puts watermarks on any rendered images.

• Modo (Luxology) is a subdivision modeling, texturing and rendering tool. Recently, version 301 added animation capabilities for camera motion and morphs / blendshapes. It is priced in the area of 895$ USD and is available for both Windows and Mac OS X

• Silo (Nevercenter) is a subdivision-surface modeler available for Mac OS X and Windows, with a Linux version in development. Silo does not include a renderer and is priced in the area of $109 USD. Silo is the bundled in modeler for the Electric Image Animation System suite.

• SketchUp Pro (Google) is a 3D modeling package that features a sketch based modeling approach and is priced at $495 USD.

• Softimage|XSI (Avid) is feature-similar Maya and is sold as a completive alternative. Prior to it's acquisition by Avid, Softimage originally promoted the program (under the name Softimage 3D) for use in the video game industry and secured it's promotion as part of the Nintendo N64 SDK. The newer Softimage XSI has additional features and integrates with mental ray rendering.

• solidThinking (solidThinking Ltd) is a 3D solid/surface modeling and rendering software which features a Construction Tree method of development. This is explained as the history of the model construction process allowes real-time updates when modifications are made to points, curves, parameters or entire objects. solidThinking is available in four versions: MODELER, MODELER XL, DESIGN, and VANTAGE.

• trueSpace (Caligari Corporation) is another 3D program available for Windows, although the company Caligari first found it's start on the Amiga platform. trueSpace features modeling, animation, 3D-painting, and rendering capabilities. It is priced in the range of $199 USD for Version 5.2 through $595 USD for Version 7.

• Vue 6 (E-on Software) Vue 6 is a tool for creating, animating and rendering natural 3D environments. It was most recently used to create the background jungle environments in the 2nd and 3rd Pirates of the Caribbean films.

• ZBrush (Pixologic) is a digital sculpting tool that combines 3D/2.5D modeling, texturing and painting tool available for Mac OS X and Windows. It is priced at $489 USD.

Non-Commercial

• Blender (Blender Foundation) is a free, open-source, 3D studio for animation, modeling, rendering, and texturing offering a feature set comparable to high end and mid range 3D animation suites such as Maya, 3ds Max, or Cinema 4D. It includes features such as multiresolution sculpting; retopology painting; 3D view texture painting; stack based modifier system; advanced particle system with particle based hair; cloth/soft body dynamics, rigid body dynamics and fluid simulation; node based texturing and node based compositing; an integrated non linear video editor; and integrated game engine. It can also import and export a variety of file formats. Blender is developed under the GPL and runs on many platforms including Windows, OS X, Linux, BSD, Sun, and Irix as well as some handheld PC platforms.

• VirtualLight

See also 3D modeler

Other packages

Commercial

• Animation:Master from HASH, Inc is a modeling and animation package that focuses on ease of use. It is a spline-based modeler. Its strength lies in character animation.
• Bryce (DAZ productions) is most famous for landscapes.
• Carrara (Eovia) is a 3D complete tool set package for 3D modeling, texturing animation and rendering; and Amapi and Hexagon (Eovia) are 3D packages often used for high-end abstract and organic modeling respectively.
• Cheetah3D is primarily aimed at amateur 3D artists with some medium- and high-end features
• Daz Studio a specialized tool for adjusting parameters of preexisting models, posing and rendering them. Similar to Poser, but more limited in functionality.
• DX Studio a complete integrated development environment for creating interactive 3D graphics. The system comprises both a real-time 3D engine and a suite of editing tools, and is the first product to offer a complete range of tools in a single IDE.
• Grome is a professional modeler especially suited for outdoor environments. Used in gaming and 3D simulation industry.
• MilkShape 3D is a shareware/trialware polygon 3D modelling program with extensive import/export capabilities.
• Mudbox Mudbox is the first advanced, high resolution brush-based 3D sculpting software that is built from the ground up to address the needs of the professional digital sculptor.
• Pixels 3D is supports NURBS modeling, animation and effects and comes with a micropolygon renderer with node-based material graphs. It is available exclusively for Mac OS X.
• Poser (E-frontier) Poser is a 3D rendering and animation software program optimized for models that depict the human figure in three-dimensional form and is specialized for adjusting features of preexisting character models via varying parameters. It is also for posing and rendering of models and characters. It includes some specialized tools for walk cycle creation, cloth and hair.
• Realsoft 3D
• 3D MESH BLACKSMITH is a 3D modeler that brings you high functionnalities to develop levels for games, or designe 3D objects with simplicity of an own designed interface, and the robutness of high level functions.This program is dedictated to a complementary usage to video game creation, realtime rendering and interactions in virtual environment.More, functionnalities are present for character modelisation and animation, object animation scripting, mesh generation and 3D spray/painting application (colors and bump map).The scripting language (pseudo-C) permits the elaboraton of various presentations, and too, full video game.Original functions complete the list of procedures to detail meshes and edit full 3D texture.3D MESH BLACKSMITH is an original tool to create 3D virtuals and others 3D data throught the power of geometry mathematics managed by our simple and robust 3D libraries.

Non-Commercial

• Anim8or is a proprietary freeware 3D rendering and animation package.
• Art of Illusion is a free software package developed under the GPL.
• AutoQ3D is a GPLed cross-platform modeler.
• Blender 3d is a freeware package for 3d modeling, rendering, and animating.
• DeleD 3D Editor is a fully functional game-oriented 3D Editor. PRO version also available.
• DIALux is light making software. It also makes buildings / architectural modeling and a little more. Used to cost thousands of dollars. It has renderers as well.
• Equinox-3D
• Landscape Studio is a Java-based heightmap generator.
• MakeHuman is a GPL program that generates 3D parametric humanoids.
• MeshLab is a free Windows, Linux and Mac OS X application for visualizing, simplifying, processing and converting large three dimensional meshes to or from a variety of 3D file formats.
• Misfit Model 3D is an OpenGL-based 3D model editor that works with triangle-based models. It supports multi-level undo, skeletal animations, simple texturing, scripting, command-line batch processing, and a plugin system for adding new model and image filters. Complete online help is included. It is designed to be easy to use and easy to extend with plugins and scripts.
• Moonlight|3d is a modeling and animation tool.
• OpenFX is a modeling and animation studio, distributed under the GPL.
• ShapeShop is a free sketch-based 3D modeling tool based on hierarchical implicit surfaces. Like Sketchup, it is very easy to use, but can create a much wider range of smooth surfaces.
• SharpConstruct is a free 3D modeling program that works like ZBrush.
• Terragen and Terragen 2 are freeware scenery generators.
• Wings 3D is a BSD-licensed, minimal modeler.
• K-3D is a GNU modeling, animation, and rendering system available on Linux and Win32. It makes use of RenderMan-compliant render engines. It features scene graph procedural modelling similar to that found in Houdini.

Renderers

Commercial

• Pixar's RenderMan is the premier renderer, used in many studios. Animation packages such as 3DS Max and Maya can pipeline to RenderMan to do all the rendering.
• Gelato is a hardware-accelerated, non-real-time renderer created by graphics card manufacturer NVIDIA.
• mental ray is another popular renderer, and comes default with most of the high-end packages.
• VRay is promoted for use in the architectural visualization field used in conjunction with 3ds max and 3ds viz. It is also commonly used with Maya.
• IRender for SketchUp add photorealistic rendering capabilities to SketchUp.
• FPrime for Lightwave adds a very fast preview and can in many cases be used for final rendering.
• KRay for Lightwave offers very fast radiosity rendering solutions
• Maxwell Render is a multi-platform renderer which forgoes raytracing, global illumination and radiosity in favor of photon rendering with a virtual electromagnetic spectrum, resulting in very authentic looking renders. It was the first to market.
• Fryrender is a multi-platform renderer which forgoes raytracing, global illumination and radiosity in favor of photon rendering with a virtual electromagnetic spectrum, resulting in very authentic looking renders. It is a competitor to Maxwell.
• Turtle is an alternative renderer for Maya, it specializes in faster radiosity and automatic surface baking technology which further enhances its speedy renders.

Non-Commercial

• Aqsis is a free rendering suite compliant with the RenderMan standard.
• Pixie is an open source photorealistic renderer.
• POV-Ray (or The Persistence of Vision Raytracer) is a freeware (with source) ray tracer written for multiple platforms.
• Sunflow is an open source, photo-realistic renderer written in Java.
• Gelato the free version of nvidia rendering programme.
• Indigo Renderer is a closed source (but free for all uses) photorealistic renderer that uses XML for scene description. Exporters available for Blender, Maya (Mti), Cinema4D, Rhino, 3ds Max.
• Kerkythea is a freeware rendering system that supports raytracing. Currently, it can be integrated with 3ds Max, Blender, SketchUp, and Silo (generally any software that can export files in obj and 3ds formats). Kerkythea is a standalone renderer, using physically accurate materials and lighting.
• YafRay raytracer/renderer distributed under the LGPL license.

Related to 3D software

Swift3D is a package for transforming models in Lightwave or 3DS Max into Flash animations. Match moving software is commonly used to match live video with computer-generated video, keeping the two in sync as the camera moves. Poser is the most popular program for modeling people. After producing video, studios then edit or composite the video using programs such as Adobe Premiere or Apple Final Cut at the low end, or Autodesk Combustion, Eye-on Digital Fusion, Apple Shake at the high end. MetaCreations Detailer and Painter 3D are discontinued software applications specifically for painting texture maps on 3-D Models. Any raster graphic editor software may be used to touch up rendered 3D still images from any 3D software application.