Aspiring 3D artwork conceptual designers and graphic artists have many choices of programs with which to do their work. Whether you want to design 3D models from scratch, insert “bones” and rig them to be posed in artwork, or just want to do the posing using someone else’s base models and get fancy with the rendering techniques and filters instead, there’s a free program out there you can use.
Here is a selection of the best free and/or open source 3D and Graphics software available:
§ Blender – A full-featured and powerful 3D model creation and rendering suite. It supports 3D model creation, rendering, animation, and even game production, and is one of the most popular free 3D model program choices available.
§ Anim8or – A 3D model creation and animation program that supports inserting “bones” into your models to make them poseable. Anim8or supports creating your own special rendering shaders to give the illusion of glossiness, transparency and other effects on your rendered models. It also features a preview render mode so that you don’t waste a lot of time rendering only to find that the shaders or some other aspect of the picture didn’t turn out how you’d hoped.
§ OpenFX – A powerful open source 3D modeling, rendering and animation suite with full raytracing, NURB support and morphing.
§ GIMP – Short for GNU Image Manipulation Program. It is a faster graphics program mostly used for image retouching and editing. Works for most operating systems including Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux.
§ DAZ|Studio – A popular 3D model posing and animation program that relies on loading installed content such as 3D base models, clothing, hair and more including a 3D photo-realistic paper doll set. Models can be morph, change textures, be tinted different colors, be posed in virtually any way imaginable, placed in 3D backgrounds or scenes, and rendered using shaders to portray texture and material effects such as leather or fur. DAZ|Studio Pro, the purchased version, supports dynamic clothing and hair.
§ PovRay – A free user-friendly raytracing program that is ideal for beginners to 3D.
Take advantage of the free open source software available for download and get your designing career started.