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3D computer graphics

Basics
3D modeling / 3D scanning
3D rendering / 3D printing
3D computer graphics software
Primary Uses
3D models / Computer-aided design
Graphic design / Video games
Visual effects / Visualization
Virtual engineering / Virtual reality
Related concepts
CGI / Animation / 3D display
Wireframe model / Texture mapping
Computer animation / Motion capture
Skeletal animation / Crowd simulation
Global illumination / Volume rendering
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3D computer graphics software refers to programs used to create 3D computer-generated imagery. There are typically many stages in the "pipeline" that studios use to create 3D objects for film and games, and this article only covers some of the software used. Note that most of the 3D packages have a very plugin-oriented architecture, and high-end plugins costing tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars are often used by studios. Larger studios usually create enormous amounts of proprietary software to run alongside these programs.

Contents 1 Features 2 Uses 3 Major packages 4 Other packages 5 Renderers 6 Related to 3D software 7 References 8 See also 9 External links

Features

Many 3D modelers are general-purpose and can be used to produce models of various real-world entities, from plants to automobiles to people. Some are specially designed to model certain objects, such as chemical compounds or internal organs.

3D modelers allow users to create and alter models via their 3D mesh. Users can add, subtract, stretch and otherwise change the mesh to their desire. Models can be viewed from a variety of angles, usually simultaneously. Models can be rotated and the view can be zoomed in and out.

3D modelers can export their models to files, which can then be imported into other applications. Many modelers allow importers and exporters to be plugged-in, so they can read and write data in the native formats of other applications.

Most 3D modelers contain a number of related features, such as ray tracers and other rendering alternatives and texture mapping facilities. Some also contain features that support or allow animation of models. Some may be able to generate full-motion video of a series of rendered scenes (i.e. animation).

Uses

3D modelers are used in a wide variety of industries. The medical industry uses them to create detailed models of organs. The movie industry uses them to create and manipulate characters and objects for animated and real-life motion pictures. The video game industry uses them to create assets for video games. The science sector uses them to create highly detailed models of chemical compounds. The architecture industry uses them to create models of proposed buildings and landscapes. The engineering community uses them to design new devices, vehicles and structures as well as a host of other uses.

Major packages

A basic comparison including release date/version information can be found on the Comparison of 3D computer graphics software page. A comprehensive comparison of significant 3D packages can be found at CG Society Wiki and TDT3D 3D applications 2007 comparisons table..

• 3ds Max (Autodesk), originally called 3D Studio MAX. 3ds Max is used in many industries that utilize 3D graphics. It is used in the video game industry for developing models and creating cinema cut-scenes. It is used in architectural visualizations because it is highly compatible with AutoCAD--also developed by Autodesk. Additionally 3ds Max is used in film production, one contemporary film being Kaena: The Prophecy¹. With its price of around $3500 USD, it is one of the more expensive products in the market for this type of work. 3ds Max is available for Windows.

• AC3D (Inivis) is another 3D modeling application that began in the 90's on the Amiga platform. While it is used in a number of industries, MathWorks actively recommends it in many of their aerospace related articles² due to price and compatibility. Additionally it is the first commercial 3D modeler to integrate full support for exporting models to the metaverse platform Second Life. AC3D is priced in the range of $79 USD and is available for Mac OS X, Windows and Linux. While AC3D does not feature its own renderer, it can generate output files for both RenderMan and POV-Ray among others.

• Blender (Blender Foundation) is a free, open-source, 3D studio for animation, modeling, rendering, and texturing offering a feature set comparable to high end and mid range 3D animation suites such as Maya, 3ds Max, or Cinema 4D. It includes features such as multi-resolution sculpting; retopology painting. Additionally it supports 3D view texture painting; stack based modifier system; flexible particle system with particle based hair; cloth/soft body dynamics, rigid body dynamics and fluid simulation; node based texturing and node based compositing; an integrated non linear video editor; and integrated game engine. Blender is developed under the GPL and is available on all major platforms including Windows, OS X, Linux, BSD, Sun and Irix. It is currently the only 3D animation suite that is supported both on super computers as well as handheld computers such as the Pocket PC (Pocket Blender).

• Cinema 4D (MAXON) is a slightly lighter package than the others in its basic configuration. The software is claimed to be artist-friendly, and is designed with the less-technical user in mind. It has a lower initial entry cost due to a modular a-la-carte design for purchasing additional functions as users need them. For example, a module called BodyPaint allows artists to draw textures directly onto the surface of models. Originally developed for the Commodore Amiga, it is also available for Mac OS X, Windows and Linux.

• Electric Image Animation System (EI Technology Group) is a 3D animation and rendering package available on both Mac OS X and Windows. Mostly known for its rendering quality and rendering speed it does not include a built-in modeler. EIAS features the ability to handle very large polygon counts. Recently, the blockbuster film "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl"³ and the Television hit "Lost"⁴ utilized the software.

• form•Z (AutoDesSys, Inc.) is a general purpose solid/surface 3D modeler. Its primary usage is modeling, and it also features photorealistic rendering and object-centric animation support. form•Z claims users involved in architecture, interior design, illustration, product design, and set design. Its default renderer uses the LightWorks rendering engine for raytracing and radiosity. form•Z also supports Plugins and Scripts and has rendering support via Next Limit's Maxwell Renderer. It has Import/Export capabilities and was first released in 1991. It is currently available for both Mac OS X and Windows. The price for this software ranges from $1495-$1995 USD based on output quality.

• Houdini (Side Effects Software) is used for visual effects, and character animation as well as used in Disney's The Wild⁵. Houdini uses a nonstandard interface that it refers to as a "NODE system". Commercial licenses of Houdini include unlimited copies of Side Effects Software's hybrid micropolygon-raytracer renderer, Mantra, but Houdini also has built-in support for commercial renderers like Pixar's RenderMan and mental ray. There are two versions of Houdini, Houdini Escape ($1,995 USD) and Houdini Master ($7,995 USD). For non-commercial users, Side Effects Software offers the free Houdini Apprentice personal learning edition, which places a small watermark on images, and Houdini Apprentice HD, a $99 USD package that does not watermark renders.

• Hypershot is used for photorealistic rendereing of 3D models with a high resolution background and environment allowing realtime adjustments and visual feedback. The possibility to include high resolution backdrops has had extensive take-up by the automotive photography industry and with the animation of the model has moved into engineering and product design areas replacing or delaying the need for prototyping.

• LightWave 3D (NewTek), first developed for the Amiga, was originally bundled as part of the Video Toaster package and entered the market as a low cost way for TV production companies to create quality CG for their programming. It first gained public attention with its use in the TV series "Babylon 5"⁶. Contemporary use in TV and movie production can be seen with the 2004 recreated Battlestar Galactica series⁷, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation⁸ and the film 300 (film)⁹. It is priced at $795 USD and is available for both Windows and Mac OS X.

• Massive is a 3D animation system for generating crowd-related visual effects, targeted for use in film and television. Originally developed for controlling the large-scale CGI battles in the Lord of the Rings¹⁰, Massive Software has become an industry standard for digital crowd control in high end animation. Recently, the software has been utilized for blockbuster feature films including Happy Feet, King Kong, and I, Robot. It is available for various Unix and Linux platforms as well as Windows.

• Maya (Autodesk) is currently used in the film and television industry. Maya has a high learning curve but has developed over the years into an application platform in and of itself through extendability via its MEL programming language. A common alternative to using the default built in rendering system named mental ray is Pixar's Renderman. In 2005, Autodesk (makers of AutoCAD), acquired Alias--the original creator of Maya¹¹. Maya comes in two versions: Maya Complete ($1999 USD) and Maya Unlimited ($4995 USD). There is also Maya Personal Learning Edition, which is for non-commercial use and puts watermarks on any rendered images.

• Modo (Luxology) is a subdivision modeling, texturing and rendering tool with support for camera motion and morphs / blendshapes. It is priced in the area of 895$ USD and is available for both Windows and Mac OS X.

• Silo (Nevercenter) is a subdivision-surface modeler available for Mac OS X and Windows. Silo does not include a renderer and is priced at $159 USD for the professional version and $99 USD for the core version. Silo is the bundled in modeler for the Electric Image Animation System suite.

• SketchUp Pro (Google) is a 3D modeling package that features a sketch-based modeling approach. It has a pro version which supports 2-D and 3-D model export functions among other features, which is currently priced at $495 USD. It also has a free version that is integrated with Google Earth and limits export to Google's "3D Warehouse", where users can share their content.

• Softimage|XSI (Autodesk) is feature-similar to Maya and is sold as a competitive alternative. Prior to its acquisition by Avid, Softimage originally promoted the program (under the name Softimage 3D) for use in the video game industry and secured its promotion as part of the Nintendo N64 SDK¹². The newer Softimage XSI has additional features and integrates with mental ray rendering.

• solidThinking (solidThinking Ltd) is a 3D solid/surface modeling and rendering software which features a Construction Tree method of development. This is explained as the history of the model construction process allowes real-time updates when modifications are made to points, curves, parameters or entire objects. solidThinking is available in four versions: MODELER, MODELER XL, DESIGN, and VANTAGE.

• SolidWorks (SolidWorks Corporation) is a series of packages used mainly for virtual testing of a product. It includes modeling, assembly, drawing, sheetmetal, weldments, and freeform surfacing. It also has support for custom programming/scripting in Visual Basic and C. The licenses/packages are SolidWorks, SolidWorks Office, SolidWorks Office Professional, SolidWorks Office Premium, SolidWorks Student Design Kit, SolidWorks Education Edition, and SolidWorks Student Edition.

• trueSpace (Caligari Corporation) is another 3D program available for Windows, although the company Caligari first found its start on the Amiga platform. trueSpace features modeling, animation, 3D-painting, and rendering capabilities. TrueSpace is now available for free download.

• Vue 7 (E-on Software) Vue 7 is a tool for creating, animating and rendering natural 3D environments. It was most recently used to create the background jungle environments in the 2nd and 3rd Pirates of the Caribbean films¹³.

• ZBrush (Pixologic) is a digital sculpting tool that combines 3D/2.5D modeling, texturing and painting tool available for Mac OS X and Windows. It is priced at $489 USD.

Other packages

• Anim8or is a proprietary freeware 3D rendering and animation package.
• Animation:Master from HASH, Inc is a modeling and animation package that focuses on ease of use. It is a spline-based modeler. Its strength lies in character animation.
• Art of Illusion is a free software package developed under the GPL.
• AutoQ3D is a GPLed cross-platform modeler.
• Ayam is a free 3D modeling environment for the RenderMan interface.
• Bryce (DAZ Productions) is most famous for landscapes.
• Carrara (DAZ Productions) is a 3D complete tool set package for 3D modeling, texturing animation and rendering; and Amapi and Hexagon (DAZ Productions) are 3D packages often used for high-end abstract and organic modeling respectively.
• Cheetah3D is primarily aimed at amateur 3D artists with some medium- and high-end features
• DAZ Studio a free specialized tool for adjusting parameters of preexisting models, posing and rendering them. Similar to Poser, but more limited in functionality.
• DX Studio a complete integrated development environment for creating interactive 3D graphics. The system comprises both a real-time 3D engine and a suite of editing tools, and is the first product to offer a complete range of tools in a single IDE.
• FaceGen is a source of human face models for other programs.
• GMax
• K-3D is a GNU modeling, animation, and rendering system available on Linux and Win32. It makes use of RenderMan-compliant render engines. It features scene graph procedural modelling similar to that found in Houdini.
• MakeHuman is a GPL program that generates 3D parametric humanoids.
• MeshLab is a free Windows, Linux and Mac OS X application for visualizing, simplifying, processing and converting large three dimensional meshes to or from a variety of 3D file formats.
• MilkShape 3D is a shareware/trialware polygon 3D modelling program with extensive import/export capabilities.
• Mudbox Mudbox is a high resolution brush-based 3D sculpting program, that claims to be the first of its type. The software was acquired by Autodesk in 2007.
• OpenFX is a modeling and animation studio, distributed under the GPL.
• Poser (Smith Micro) Poser is a 3D rendering and animation software program optimized for models that depict the human figure in three-dimensional form and is specialized for adjusting features of preexisting character models via varying parameters. It is also for posing and rendering of models and characters. It includes some specialized tools for walk cycle creation, cloth and hair.
• RealFlow simulates and renders particle systems of rigid bodies and fluids.
• Realsoft3D Real3D Full featured 3D modeling, animation, simulation and rendering software available for Windows, Linux, Mac OS X and Irix.
• Rhinoceros 3D is a commercial modeling tool which has excellent support for freeform NURBS editing.
• Terragen and Terragen 2 are freeware scenery generators.
• Wings 3D is a BSD-licensed, minimal modeler.

Renderers

• 3Delight is a RenderMan-compliant renderer.
• Aqsis is a free rendering suite compliant with the RenderMan standard.
• Brazil is a rendering engine for 3ds Max and VIZ
• FPrime for Lightwave adds a very fast preview and can in many cases be used for final rendering.
• Gelato is a hardware-accelerated, non-real-time renderer created by graphics card manufacturer NVIDIA.
• Hypershot is a real-time photorealistic renderer for high resolution images.
• Hypermove is a real-time photorealistic renderer for high resolution movies.
• Hyperdrive is a realtime photorealistic system for driving a automotive model and viewing it with virtual cameras
• Indigo Renderer is a closed source (but free for all uses) photorealistic renderer that uses XML for scene description. Exporters available for Blender, Maya (Mti), form•Z, Cinema4D, Rhino, 3ds Max.
• Kerkythea is a freeware rendering system that supports raytracing. Currently, it can be integrated with 3ds Max, Blender, SketchUp, and Silo (generally any software that can export files in obj and 3ds formats). Kerkythea is a standalone renderer, using physically accurate materials and lighting.
• LuxRender is an unbiased open source rendering engine featuring Metropolis light transport
• Maxwell Render is a multi-platform renderer which forgoes raytracing, global illumination and radiosity in favor of photon rendering with a virtual electromagnetic spectrum, resulting in very authentic looking renders. It was the first to market.
• mental ray is another popular renderer, and comes default with most of the high-end packages. (Now owned by NVIDIA)
• Pixar's PhotoRealistic RenderMan is the a renderer, used in many studios. Animation packages such as 3DS Max and Maya can pipeline to RenderMan to do all the rendering.
• Pixie is an open source photorealistic renderer.
• POV-Ray (or The Persistence of Vision Raytracer) is a freeware (with source) ray tracer written for multiple platforms.
• Sunflow is an open source, photo-realistic renderer written in Java.
• Turtle is an alternative renderer for Maya, it specializes in faster radiosity and automatic surface baking technology which further enhances its speedy renders.
• VRay is promoted for use in the architectural visualization field used in conjunction with 3ds max and 3ds viz. It is also commonly used with Maya.
• YafRay raytracer/renderer distributed under the LGPL license.

Related to 3D software

• Swift3D is a package for transforming models in Lightwave or 3DS Max into Flash animations.
• Match moving software is commonly used to match live video with computer-generated video, keeping the two in sync as the camera moves.
• After producing video, studios then or composite the video using programs such as Adobe Premiere or Apple Final Cut at the low end, or Autodesk Combustion, Digital Fusion, Apple Shake at the high end.
• MetaCreations Detailer and Painter 3D are discontinued software applications specifically for painting texture maps on 3-D Models.
• Quantum Hog is a free editor for 3D markup language for web (3DMLW) which enables to show 3D models in common web browsers.

References

See also

• 3D modeling
• Computer-aided design
• Game development tool
• Level editor
• Game engine

External links

• http://wiki.cgsociety.org/index.php/Comparison_of_3d_tools
• http://www.tdt3d.be/articles_viewer.php?art_id=99

Wikipedia content modification information:

• This page was last modified on 6 January 2009, at 23:09.

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