Disney cartoons and popular video games have already made 3D animation a common part of the entertainment industry. Viewers like 3D animations as they are bright, attractive, and convey emotions well.
The many advantages of 3D graphics, including unlimited creativity and budget, compared to filming on location, with real actors, makes many people think about creating a video with 3D effects on their own.
Therefore, many brands prefer to tell stories, create a trusting image and attract new customers precisely with the help of videos with 3D animation.
3D animation has become the most popular among all types of animation, especially among the younger generation. Knowing the benefits and advantages of three-dimensional design and animation, you might want to have it for your business, and this site (3d animation service) is here to help you with this. Besides, Statista notes that consumers increasingly expect higher quality graphics in gaming, better visual effects in movies and a more immersive consumption experience wherever they go.
Here is the list of the best 3D animation software, where you can create and animate any imaginary characters.
1. Blender
Among the free programs for 3D animation, Blender is a professional free and open-source 3D animation software, which includes a range of applications such as visual effects, animation films, video games, and many more. Blender supports an entire 3D tree, which includes features such as rigging, modeling, animation, simulation, compositing, rendering, and motion tracking.
When using the software, you don’t have to deal with ads and watermarks. It even contains a lot of tutorials to make it easy to familiarize yourself with Blender’s features.
The program includes effects of smoke and liquid, modeling of a soft body and fluids, applying guides, and changing weight.
2. Houdini
The popularity of the software is explained precisely by the high quality and complexity of simulation and effects. It is software that is developed based on a node-based workflow. Houdini’s procedural modeling approach allows you to modify the entire model and quickly generate complex geometries with a constant level of quality by changing individual parameters (nodes). From carefully crafted terrain maps to a variety of spaceship corridors, almost anything can be generated procedurally.
This 3D animation software offers a solution for every challenge: for example, you can perform complex crowd simulations that include crowd layout controls, collision avoidance, terrain adaptation, and more. Another feature of Houdini has procedurally generated fluids and particles that give your 3D animation an extra realism.
3. K3-D
One of the best 3D animation software out there, K-3D has a procedural engine plugin for content creation. It is a free 3D animation software that supports polygon modeling. The visual pipeline architecture is combined with user-friendly plugins that make the K3-D software a powerful and versatile tool. Besides, K-3D has a consistent and intuitive animation creation process and Includes basic animation tools, patches, curves, and NURBS.
4. Maya
Maya from Autodesk is the favorite among 3D animators for its highly customizable user interface. Character animation is the main professional feature of Maya. It is in this program that modern animation for films and cartoons around the world is performed. The most convenient tool for this is the Graph Editor – a window in which graphs of the dependence of the movement of characters on time are graphically presented. Add and move animation keys, reshape curves in one move, scale, mirror and move charts in one window – your animation workflow will be simple and straightforward for you. Another hallmark of Maya as a professional 3D animation software is that it comes with sophisticated CG compositing (“MatchMover”) software that allows users to combine 3D rendering elements with motion data from sequences of scenes recorded on set by tracking camera movement.
5. Cinema 4D
If you’re looking for ease of use, Cinema 4D has a uniquely intuitive interface. An OpenGL powered live view screen shows depth of field and reflects on screen, making it easy to effectively control these effects. Cinema 4D allows you to export previews so you can send them to clients for approval. The Bodypaint tool is now also supported by the live viewport, which means you can see the results of your texture changes as you create them.
6. Mixamo
Mixamo is an online platform that can speed up your 3D animation workflow by automatically creating rigs for bipedal characters. Creating a skeleton by hand can be tricky, as the weights for each bone must be colored piece by piece. In this 3D animation software, users upload their 3D files and mark some key elements like knees and elbows. Then the magic of Maximo works and creates a complex surface with mass that is ready for 3D animation.
But this software is capable of more than automatic tuning. You can select a model from a large library of animation files to assign to your mountable model. Files are arranged according to genres, and can be customized according to the needs of your project. You can also download the finished animated model to your home computer and display it in your favorite 3D animation software. Mixamo’s auto-rigged 3D models are compatible with major other popular 3D animation tools.
7. Modo
Compared to some other 3D animation software, modo is relatively easy to learn. Its main advantages are surface modeling with polygons and surface subdivisions, particle engine and procedural animation.
One tool that is sometimes underestimated, but the developers pay a lot of attention to, is Selection. The fact is that for every situation this program has a suitable selection mode that will allow you to make global changes to your model. Record repetitive operation macros and apply them to objects as needed to speed up modeling. Similar to other 3D animation software, modo includes 3D sculpting tools that expand the range of your artistic expression with natural shapes that are as easy as sculpting clay with your hands.
Technology is progressing, new programs and its updates are constantly being released, functions are being updated, and sometimes it can be difficult to keep up. But if you are determined to stay on top of trends in your industry, you need to evolve with technology. Computer programs for creating 3D animation have become more sophisticated, and the right tools can help save time for other projects. So, we recommend you to choose a 3D animation program that suits your goals and skill level.