3D Animation Software Comparison

Hi!
3D animation software is an incredible thing - have you ever thought of modeling and animating the best dream you ever had? You can virtually create whole new worlds with the right tools.

If you are interested in finding out which 3D Animation Software is perfect for you, you have come to the right place.
This gets interesting: I found out that Amazon offers the latest versions of Poser and Bryce at very low prices (plus free shipping!), and that currently there is also a discount on Cheetah3D.


Bryce
If you are interested in creating landscapes in a very intuitive way, and you are new to 3D animation, there can be hardly any better choice for you than Bryce. It is very easy to use, yet powerful. Bryce allows you to play around with many physical effects like refraction of light, complex reflections, volumetric rendering, "massive objects" like clouds and dust, and much more! Since the latest version of Bryce works closely together with DAZ Studio, it is now much more than "only" a landscape animation software and has even become the preference of a number of professionals.

Click here to buy Bryce 6 at Amazon.com



Poser
Being the sophisticated and professional piece of software to animate any kind of living object as well as hair and cloth, Poser deserves a strong recommendation. It is definitely not as intuitive as Bryce, but if want to...

- Animate hair, cloth and movements involving highly realistic physical effects
- Transform photos of their face into a 3D model using Poser's "Face Room", shape face using many specific parameters, and even change age, ethnic characteristics, or add the caricature look to them
- Let characters created in Poser lip-sync recorded speech using the "TalkDesigner"
- Render animations including optical effects like motion blur, or even different sketch styles
- Render characters in front of an imported movie (like using a green screen)

...I cannot help but saying that Poser includes pretty much every feature you could wish for!

Poser also provides a "Walk Designer" to let you specifically design different walk styles that can be used as loops and therefore eliminate the effort of animating every limb for every step again.

One of the nicest features about Posers are Morph Targets which allow you to design bodies and facial expressions by combining different properties (like typical shapes of certain body parts) or typical mimics (like wide smile, open mouth, frown) at any intensity you choose.

Click here to buy Poser 8 at Amazon.com



Cheetah3D
This little tool started as a rather simple 3D modeling software, being the perfect starting point to create and design your own objects and process them in any software you like - therefore Cheetah3D is a master at importing and exporting a great variety of formats.

By now, this "little tool" has developed to being much more than only a modeling software - and the greatest thing about it is that it is still developing. With every new version Cheetah grows and covers whole new sets of features.

But apart from being able to handle skeleton-based character animation, morph targets, and particle instancing, Cheetah3D provides something that makes a huge difference in the everday user experience: one great focus of Martin Wengenmayer always has been to achieve the best possible usability with all the component of his software. And I cannot stress one thing enough about Cheetah3D: It is the only 3D animation software I know that is being developed by one genius programmer and the feedback of hundreds of users (from newbies without any animation experience to professionals that use Cheetah for interior design and architecture) that are very passionate about this piece of software and use it every day. Who knows better than the users what is missing? Being one of these proud users in the Cheetah3D community, I have great trust in the software and I am amazed at the great service and passion of Dr. Martin Wengenmayer who is developing the software and listening to all the feedback, being an active member of the Cheetah3D forum himself.

Click here to buy Cheetah3D



For every purchase made on Amazon.com referred from this blog, I receive a commission.