SoftWare Packages

Major packages used commonly in industry

• 3ds Max (Autodesk), originally called 3D Studio MAX, is a comprehensive and versatile 3D application used in film, television, video games and architecture for Windows. It can be extended and customized through its SDK or scripting using a Maxscript. It can use third party rendering options such as Brazil R/S, finalRender and V-Ray.

• AC3D (Inivis) is a 3D modeling application that began in the 90's on the Amiga platform. Used in a number of industries, MathWorks actively recommends it in many of their aerospace-related articles^[1] due to price and compatibility. AC3D does not feature its own renderer, but can generate output files for both RenderMan and POV-Ray among others.

• Aladdin4D (DiscreetFX), first created for the Amiga, was originally developed by Adspec Programming. After acquisition by DiscreetFX, it is multi-platform for Mac OS X, Amiga OS 4.1, MorphOS, Linux, AROS and Windows.

• Blender (Blender Foundation) is a free, open source, 3D studio for animation, modeling, rendering, and texturing offering a feature set comparable to commercial 3D animation suites. It includes features such as multi-resolution sculpting; retopology painting; 3D view texture painting; and other features. Blender is developed under the GPL and is available on all major platforms including Windows, OS X, Linux, BSD, Solaris and Irix.

• Carrara (DAZ Productions) is a fully-featured 3D toolset for modeling, texturing, scene rendering and animation.

• Cinema 4D (MAXON) is a light (Prime) to full featured (Studio) 3d package dependant on version used. Although used in film usually for 2.5d work, Cinema's largest user base is in the television motion graphics and design/visualisation arenas. Originally developed for the Amiga, it is also available for Mac OS X, Windows and Linux.

• CityEngine (Procedural Inc) is a 3D modeling application specialized in the generation of three dimensional urban environments. With the procedural modeling approach, CityEngine enables the efficient creation of detailed large-scale 3D city models, it is available for Mac OS X, Windows and Linux.

• Cobalt is a parametric-based Computer-aided design (CAD) and 3D modeling software for both the Macintosh and Microsoft Windows. It integrates wireframe, freeform surfacing, feature-based solid modeling and photo-realistic rendering (see Ray tracing), and animation.

• 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. The popular film Pirates of the Caribbean^[2] and the television series Lost^[3] used the software.

• form•Z (AutoDesSys, Inc.) is a general purpose solid/surface 3D modeler. Its primary use is for modeling, but it also features photo realistic rendering and object-centric animation support. form•Z is used in architecture, interior design, illustration, product design, and set design. It supports plug-ins and scripts, has import/export capabilities and was first released in 1991. It is currently available for both Mac OS X and Windows.

• Houdini (Side Effects Software) is used for visual effects and character animation. It was used in Disney's feature film The Wild.^[4] Houdini uses a non-standard interface that it refers to as a "NODE system". It has a hybrid micropolygon-raytracer renderer, Mantra, but it also has built-in support for commercial renderers like Pixar's RenderMan and mental ray.

• Inventor (Autodesk) The Autodesk Inventor is for 3D mechanical design, product simulation, tooling creation, and design communication.

• 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 CGI for their programming. It first gained public attention with its use in the TV series Babylon 5^[5] and is used in several contemporary TV series.^[6][7][8]. Lightwave is also used in a variety of modern film productions.^[9][10]. It 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 Rings,^[11] Massive has become an industry standard for digital crowd control in high end animation^{[citation needed]} and has been used on several other big-budget films. 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 developed over the years into an application platform in and of itself through extendability via its MEL programming language. It is available for Windows, Linux and Mac OS X.

• Modo (Luxology) is a subdivision modeling, texturing and rendering tool with support for camera motion and morphs/blendshapes.and is now used in the Television Industry It is available for both Windows and Mac OS X.

• NX ( Siemens PLM Software) is an integrated suite of software for computer-aided mechanical design (mechanical CAM), computer-aided manufacturing (CAM), and computer-aided engineering (CAE) formed by combining the former Unigraphics and SDRC I-deas software product lines.^[12] NX is currently available for the following operating systems: Windows XP and Vista, Apple Mac OS X,^[13], and Novell SUSE Linux.^[14]

• Silo (Nevercenter) is a subdivision-surface modeler available for Mac OS X and Windows. Silo does not include a renderer. 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 2D and 3D model export functions among other features. A free version is integrated with Google Earth and limits export to Google's "3D Warehouse", where users can share their content.

• Softimage (Autodesk) Softimage (formerly Softimage|XSI) is a 3D modeling and animation package that integrates with mental ray rendering. It is feature-similar to Maya and 3DS Max and is used in the production of professional films, commercials, video games, and other media.

• solidThinking (solidThinking) is a 3D solid/surface modeling and rendering suite which features a construction tree method of development. The tree is the "history" of the model construction process and allows real-time updates when modifications are made to points, curves, parameters or entire objects.

• Solid Edge ( Siemens PLM Software) is a commercial application for design, drafting, analysis, and simulation of products, systems, machines and tools. All versions include feature-based parametric modeling, assembly modeling, drafting, sheetmetal, weldment, freeform surface design, and data management.^[15] Application-programming interfaces enable scripting in Visual Basic and C programming.

• SolidWorks (SolidWorks Corporation) is an application used for the design, detailing and validation of products, systems, machines and toolings. All versions include modeling, assemblies, drawing, sheetmetal, weldment, and freeform surfacing functionality. It also has support for scripting in Visual Basic and C.

• Swift 3D (Electric Rain) is a relatively inexpensive 3D design, modeling, and animation application targeted to entry-level 3D users and Adobe Flash designers. Swift 3D supports vector and raster-based 3D animations for Adobe Flash and Microsoft Silverlight XAML.

• trueSpace (Caligari Corporation) is a 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. In 2009, Microsoft purchased TrueSpace and it is now available completely free of charge.

• Vue (E-on Software) 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 films.^[16]

• 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 used to create normal maps for low resolution models to make them look more detailed.

Other packages which are not as mainstream as the common ones

• 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 Community is not a professional CAD program and it is focused to beginners who want to make rapid 3D designs. It is a free software package developed under the GPL.
• Ayam is a free 3D modeling environment for the RenderMan interface.
• Bryce (DAZ Productions) is most famous for landscapes and creating 'painterly' renderings, as well as its unique user interface.
• Cybermotion 3D is a commercial 3D modeling, animation and rendering package.
• Cheetah3D is primarily aimed at amateur 3D artists with some medium- and high-end features
• DAZ Studio a free 3D rendering tool set for adjusting parameters of preexisting models, posing and rendering them in full 3D scene environments. Imports objects created in Poser and is similar to that program, but with fewer features.
• 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.
• Evolver is a portal for 3D computer characters incorporating a human (humanoid) builder and a cloner to work from picture.
• FaceGen is a source of human face models for other programs. Users are able to generate face models either randomly or from input photographs.
• Geist3D is a free software program for real-time modeling and rendering three-dimensional graphics and animations.
• Grome is a professional outdoor scene modeler (terrain, water, vegetation) for games and other 3D real-time applications.
• GMax
• GPure is a software to prepare scene/meshes from digital mockup to multiple uses
• 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.
• Moment of Inspiration is a 3D modeling program focusing on simplicity and ease-of-use for Tablet PCs, designed to complement polygon-based modeling programs, by one of the developers behind Rhinoceros 3D.
• 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, and has a current rival in its field known as ZBrush (see above).
• 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.
• Seamless3d NURBS based modelling and animation software with much of the focus on creating avatars optimized for real time animation. It is free, open source under the MIT license.
• Wings 3D is a BSD-licensed, subdivision modeler.

TIF	RGB - 24 or 48 bits, Grayscale - 8 or 16 bits, Indexed color - 1 to 8 bits, Line Art (bilevel)- 1 bit For TIF files, most programs allow either no compression or LZW compression (lossless, but is less effective for 24 bit color images). Adobe Photoshop also provides JPG or ZIP compression too (but which greatly reduces third party compatibility of TIF files). "Document programs" allow ITCC G3 or G4 compression for 1 bit text (Fax is G3 or G4 TIF files), which is lossless and tremendously effective (small).
PNG	RGB - 24 or 48 bits, Grayscale - 8 or 16 bits, Indexed color - 1 to 8 bits, Line Art (bilevel) - 1 bit PNG uses ZIP compression which is lossless, and slightly more effective than LZW (slightly smaller files). PNG is a newer format, designed to be both verstile and royalty free, back when the LZW patent was disputed.
JPG	RGB - 24 bits, Grayscale - 8 bits JPEG always uses lossy JPG compression, but its degree is selectable, for higher quality and larger files, or lower quality and smaller files.
GIF	Indexed color - 1 to 8 bits GIF uses lossless LZW compression, effective on indexed color. GIF files contain no dpi information for printing purposes.

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