Table of Contents
You won’t be constrained to where your desktop is set up if you use one of the best free 3D apps for a 3D animation studio, and you won’t have to pay the exorbitant costs of more serious software if you use one of the best free 3D apps. There are currently a surprising amount of programs that are truly useful for 3D modeling, and many of them are completely free.
Although you won’t get the same level of functionality as the top 3D modeling software, many apps now sync with the more powerful software, there’s a lot to be said for downloading one to your tablet and sculpting on the go. To gain a feel for the technique, you might also play around with the browser-based and more rudimentary apps.
Here are nine of the best, starting with the basics for newcomers and progressing to more complicated packages for seasoned 3D artists. Are you looking for some motivation? Check out our collection of the most amazing 3D art.
SculptGL
It’s difficult to go wrong with Stéphane Ginier’s SculptGL for beginners who wish to develop a feel for 3D sculpting. It’s a free browser-based digital sculpting program with plenty of capabilities to get you started with 3D sculpting with a mouse or tablet. It’s also available as a Chrome app and standalone version.
There are a variety of brushes and manipulation tools to test, as well as PBR vertex painting and alpha texture support, multi-resolution sculpting, voxel remeshing, and dynamic topology, and your work may be exported as an OBJ, PLY, or STL file.
>>Read more:
Wings 3D
If you want to try your hand at 3D modeling, Wings 3D is an excellent place to start. It’s purely a modeling program that allows you to create a simple 3D model out of polygons and then smooth it out by subdividing the mesh.
It’s a simple experience with an oddly customizable UI, but it’s supposed to be simple to use and supports lights and materials, as well as having a built-in AutoUV mapping feature.
>>>Read more: Unreal Engine Sequencer – A real time editor for virtual 3D production
Tinkercad
Tinkercad is a suite of free online tools that will get you started not only with 3D but also with electronics and coding. It was created as an introduction to Autodesk’s more powerful CAD tools.
It’s all about positioning, altering, and combining items to create designs, and it comes with a ton of tutorials to get you started. When you’re done, you can export your work for 3D printing or export a slice as an SVG file for laser cutting.
Daz Studio
Even if you can’t wrap your head around 3D modeling, there are still some fantastic choices for making 3D graphics without having to deal with polygons and subdivisions. Daz Studio lacks modeling tools, but it can be used to create complex 3D scenarios and animations utilizing a large collection of pre-made people, animals, objects, vehicles, accessories, and environments.
There are plenty of in-app interactive lessons for novices to help you get to grips with the app’s features, so you can start learning about lighting, texturing, and rigging, and once you’ve finished your 3D creation, you can render it a photo-realistic resolution to use as you like.
Clara.io
Clara.io is a cloud-based 3D modeling, animation, and rendering tool that runs in your web browser and provides you with all the tools you need to create and share 3D models and photo-realistic renders.
It comes with a variety of advanced modeling tools that let you do everything from altering an existing model to creating your own, and it renders with VRay cloud rendering, which includes a large material library and customizable lighting configurations. Clara.io’s front end is modeled after classic desktop tools, so it’s simple to get started with and should prepare you to adjust if you desire to upgrade to more powerful software.
Sculptris
Sculptris, based on Pixologic’s ZBrush, is the appropriate free 3D modeling app to go on to if you’ve explored the possibilities of SculptGL. It combines dynamic tessellation with automatic subdivision to enable you to get sculpting right away, and it has an intuitive, immersive interface with navigational controls similar to those in ZBrush.
It’s simple to export to ZBrush for extra refinement if you want to take your work a step further. Sculptris is no longer in development, although it can still be downloaded for free.
Blender
Blender, the uncontested king of free 3D software, is an incredibly powerful tool for 3D creation that can handle just about everything that much more expensive packages can, from modeling and texturing to rendering and compositing. There are also numerous Blender tutorials available to assist you in learning the ropes.
It’s compatible with all major operating systems, and while it’s had a reputation for being a little too open-source in terms of design, the most recent upgrade has seen it adopt a more industry-standard interface. As a result, it now supports a right-click context menu as well as keyboard shortcuts that perform exactly what you’d expect from other packages.
Bforartists
There may be less of a need for Bforartists now that Blender has adopted a more standardized appearance, but it’s still worth checking out if you don’t like Blender’s user interface.
It’s a fork of Blender geared largely towards artists, and it’s been designed to be much easier to use, with a more intuitive graphical user interface.
However, this shouldn’t come at the sacrifice of functionality; the development team claims that every feature that works in Blender will work in Bforartists as well.
Meshmixer
Meshmixer(opens in new tab), a lightweight tool from industry leader Autodesk, is jam-packed with helpful features. It’s a triangle mesh-based Windows utility that’s great for fixing and customizing old work, as well as having a variety of modeling tools.
Beginners may find it difficult at first, but it is well worth the effort, and it is great for 3D printing (see our list of 3D printers here). Meshmixer is no longer supported by Autodesk, but it is not being phased out.
Terragen
When you’re working on a major 3D project, you need something that can build a stunning world, and Terragen does just that. Terragen is a powerful tool for creating and visualizing realistic natural surroundings; it can create any landscape you can imagine.
The free edition is only for personal use (though it can be used commercially for a 30-day trial period) and has a few limitations compared to the full version, but it’s a great way to get a taste of Terragen’s amazing world-building capabilities.
Above is our recommendation of what we consider the best 3D apps for a 3D animation studio. If you have any questions about these apps, please let us know by commenting in the box below!
–
Animost – Vietnam 3D Animation Studio
hello@animost.com