TOP ANIMATION SOFTWARES

3D SOFTWARES

Have you ever wondered about the visual effects in the movies like Avatar, Star Wars or 3D animation in the movies such as Cars and UP? Do you know how the visual effects are created in such movies? Or, perhaps, you are a gamer and wondering, how the real looking characters are created in the games?

Visual effects, commonly referred as VFX in movie terminology, are generated on computers, popularly called Computer Generated Images, or CGI in short. Visual effects or CGI are created through different kinds of 3D production suites.

Some of the top 3D Production Suites are:

1.Maya

Main Usage: To create visual effects in movies
Developer: Autodesk Inc.
Price: $3495 (Learning edition free)

2.3Ds Max

Main Usage: Gaming industry
Developer: Autodesk Inc.
Price: $3495 (Learning edition free)

3.Autodesk Softimage

Main Usage: Visual effects/Games
Developer: Autodesk Inc.
Price: $2995 (Learning edition free)

4.NewTek Lightwave

Main Usage: visual effects in commercial advertising
Developer: NewTek
Price: $895 (Student edition $195, free 30-day trial)

5.Luxology Modo

Main Usage: Product design, architectural design
Developer: Luxology
Price: $995 ($25 for 30 day evaluation kit)

6.Maxon Cinema 4D

Main Usage: Visual effects and animation for movies
Developer: Maxon
Price: $3695 (Studio license), $995 (Prime license)

7.Side Effects Houdini

Main Usage: Prototyping visual effects
Developer: Side Effects Software
Price: $6695(Master License), $1995 (Basic License), non-commercial license free.

8.Blender

Main Usage: modeling, texturing and game development
Developer: Open Source
Price: Free

9.SOLIDWORKS
This makes best 3D models
Not free ware
Available in trial version




Submitted by Vinaya.Ghimire on September 13th, 2013
Photo by Floyd Wilde [CC-BY-SA-2.0 ], via Wikimedia Commons