The best free and paid 3D animation software for designers

The designing industry is on the top of all the other sectors for the increasing demands of 3D animation services and marketing videos. Therefore, it is essential for designers to have widespread knowledge of the 3D animation software programs to stay in the market.

There are many 3D animation software that you can use or explore if you are a skilled animator or just someone who likes to use the animation software for fun!

Although there are many 3D animation makers in the market, only a few can be trusted to do the job. In this article, you can discover the free as well as the paid software programs used to create animated videos.

Four best free software for 3D animation

1. Blender

Designed for animations, Blender is used to create award-winning short feature films. It has high 3D animation features and 3D modeling toolset. It is considered to be an available source of animation alternative to paid modeling programs. Blender is used to host a wide range of visual effects; video games feature films, and much more. The blender supports all the different features required in making a 3D animation like rigging, modeling, animating, simulating, compositing, rendering, and tracking motion.

2. Wings 3D

Wings 3D is a cutting-edge subdivision modeler that is both commanding and easy to use. It is a free and open source 3Da animation software used by both, a professional designer and designers who are doing it for fun.

Some features of wings 3D include

• A wide range of selection and modeling tools
• Customized interface
• The built-in auto UV mapping facility

3. K3-D

K-3D is a free 3D modeling and animating software which combines flexible plugins with a visualization pipeline architecture, making it a versatile and powerful tool for the artist.

Some features of K3-D includes

• Perspective and consistent
• Contains all the necessary tools for animation
• Extraneous workflow
• It is downloadable on Windows, OS X, Linux, and FreeBSD

4. Source Filmmaker

It is a movie-making tool using game engine sources to make amazing feature movies. Whatever features are present in the game, the source filmmaker uses it and vice versa.

Some of the key features of the movie making tools are

• Exchange power of a modern game
• The gaming characters and elements are also present in the movie
• Free download
• The entire workflow of making a film is managed in a single system
• Free for creating your own movie and adding features as per your requirement

These four free animation software are the best choice for newbies who want to be professional animators along with the animators working as an expert for various animating companies.

With this said, let’s discuss the top four paid software best for animation.

Four best-paid software for 3D animation

1. Maya

Maya is one of the best software programs to develop games, 3D scenes, movies or characters. Although a paid software, Maya 3D animation software justifies to its various features of coloring, animation, and modeling.

Some of the features Maya is commonly known for

• Maya has a 30 days free trial
• Easy to use
• Create complicated technical effects
• Note-worthy animation edits
• Accuracy and control
• An excellent choice to create flying logos, title sequence, and brands
• Devoted to high performance every time

2. Cinema 4D

Cinema 4D offers a tender bend for learning and is faster than Maya, but it does not cover all the features that Maya has to offer. The desirable speed makes it an excellent choice in animating advertisements, TVs and other motion graphics.

Some notable features are

• A wide-ranging library of previous scenes, materials, and objects
• Create concepts eliminating time modeling
• Divide complete scenes
• Personalized with a massive range of assets

3. 3D Animation Inc

Built for game developers, 3danimationinc creates customized 3D characters. With the newest user experience and interface, it has made it easy to find, make, organize, and share features and animations instantly.

Some of the features of 3D animation maker online includes

• Smooth user experience
• Customizable animations
• Fast and accurate search functions
• Multiple animations can be downloaded at the same time
• Fast character and animation browsing

4. Houdini

Houdini is able to cover almost every major part of a 3D animation software. Houdini combines all the superior performance and physically practical dynamic simulation tools to VFX artists creating feature films, commercials or video games.

Some of the features of Houdini includes

• Authoritative and manageable 3D animation experience
• Rigging
• FX addition like fur, hair, etc.
• Import-export to a range of formats
• Built-in rendering solutions

Conclusion

This list of free and paid 3D animation software is undoubtedly the best software programs for 3D animators and graphic designer. No matter professional or freelancer, you need these software programs to create amazing and out of the box animations. Just a little trial and more practice make you perfect. So keep on designing!

You can also check out this post in Pixpa for more details on animation software: The 15 Best Animation Software for 2020