LightWave 3D

Paid
Proprietary
Online
Mac
Windows

LightWave 3D Alternatives

14
Options
Considered
2021-09-11
Last
Updated

#1 Mixamo

Free
Proprietary
SaaS

Mixamo is an application that enables you to bring your illustrations, interactive experiences, films, and games to life by adding several 3D characters, animations, and skeletal rigs. You can browse a huge set of good-quality 3D characters. There is a wide range of characters for every purpose including realistic to cartoon and fantasy to science fiction.

You can ultimately use each character in your creative projects because each character is fully rigged and textured. Upload your character to the platform and automatically get a fully rigged human skeleton, you can manually fit your model and animate. The main features of the platform include 3D video editing, 3D animation, 3D modeling, model library, character rigging, character skinning, export media, asset library, and much more.

#2 Blender

Free
Open Source
Linux
Mac
Windows
Github

Blender is a free and open-source 3D imaging software suite that supports the entire 3D pipeline – modeling, animation, rigging, rendering, simulation, composition, and motion tracking, even game creation, and video editing. Power users use the Blender API to write Python scripts to customize the application and write specialized tools that are often included in future releases of Blender. Blender is well suited for individuals and small studios who benefit from its unified pipeline and flexible development process. Examples from many Blender-based projects are available in the storefront.

It is cross-platform and works equally well on Linux, Windows, and Macintosh computers. To ensure consistency its interface uses OpenGL. To confirm the compatibility, it contains a list of supported platforms that include those that are regularly tested by the development team. As a community-driven project under the GNU General Public License (GPL), the public has the right to make small and large changes to the codebase, resulting in new features, quicker bug fixes, and better usability. It has no price tag, but you can invest, participate and contribute to the development of a powerful collaboration tool.

#3 DAZ 3D

Paid
Proprietary
Mac
Windows

DAZ 3D is software that provides rigged 3D human models to create animations and games. No matter you are a beginner or a pro, it has the assets that you can use to develop your 3D world. It contains content, photo-realistic renders, and premier characters that are available to assist you. You can animate whatever object you want that include people, animals, creatures, places, things, animations, resources, adds one, and staff picks. It enables you to easily create custom characters and scenes in seconds. You can bring your animation world to life with your own customized poses, renders, and rigs. From the widest 3D model library, you can choose premier characters.

#4 iClone

Paid
Proprietary
Online
Windows

iClone is a powerful graphics editor that helps you create 3D animations with digital actors, different environments, and visuals. Although it has many custom options, the GUI is straightforward. If you want to make the most of each built-in feature, you should check out the online reference guide and video tutorials. The platform helps you create multiple projects and edit stages by customizing the layout to display 2D backgrounds, atmosphere, 3D scenes, camera, image layers, and lights.

The program allows users to select a background color or upload a file from a computer (e.g., BMP, JPEG, GIF, TGA, PNG, MP4, RM, MPEG, etc.), work with multiple image layers, and adjust brightness, contrast, hue, and saturation levels, design 3D Scenes that include various elements (e.g., landscape, water, tree, grass) and customize the atmosphere by choosing from various presets or manually adjusting objects (e.g., sky, light, fog, particles, HDR effects).

#5 Adobe Animate

Paid
Proprietary
SaaS

Adobe Animate is a versatile application that enables you to design interactive animations for TV shows, games, and the web. You can bring your cartoons and banners to life by creating animated avatars and doodles. You can add action to infographics and eLearning content. The platform also enables you to publish your content to multiple platforms and meet viewers on any screen.

Using powerful animation and illustration tools, you can create innovative mobile and web content for games and ads. Add your audios in the game and design start screens. The key features of the platform include Collaboration Tools, Customizable Branding, Drag & Drop, Media Library, Social Sharing, Templates, Text Overlay, Text to Video, Voice-Over, and much more.

#6 Corel MotionStudio 3D

Paid
Proprietary
Windows

Corel MotionStudio 3D is a versatile application through which you can create 3D visuals, 3D graphics, and compositing. The platform adds a new technique to video production by creating particle systems, stunning visuals, and 3D titles. The app lets you create 3D effects, 3D titles, and animated text with presets that make your work easier. High-quality particle systems available include fire, smoke, bubbles, and others. You can even add realistic motion blur and create or import 3D models. The key features of the platform include real-time 3D graphics, a powerful particle system, dynamic 3d titles and text, professional 3d output, and much more.

#7 Clara.io

Paid
Proprietary
SaaS

Clario.io is a platform where you can create unique 3D models for your games and ads. There is no need to install this application on your computer. You can use it online on your browser to edit and create 3D animations. It is powered by the v-ray cloud that enables you to upload any file from any device or import your models from scratch. It contains a complete 3D modeling toolset that helps to develop complete 3D models or just tweak the normal.

The salient features of the platform include powerful modeling tools, v-ray cloud rendering, import/export anything, multi-platform, modern interface, scripting, plugins, API, embedding, easy sharing, collaboration, versioning, and much more.

#8 Sculptris

Free
Proprietary
Online
Windows

Sculptris is a free 3D modeling application and is an amazing tool for the immersive 3D world. Its functions are easy to learn, even for those with no digital art experience, yet robust enough to create basic models that can then be refined in other applications such as ZBrush. Start with a virtual clay sphere and shape it any way you like. This is made possible in Sculptris due to its amazing ability to locally redefine the internal structure of the model.

In Sculpt mode, you can edit the mesh geometry with simple brush strokes. Think of it as using sculpting tools on a piece of real clay. In paint mode, you can use brushes to paint a texture that is mapped (also known as rendered) onto the surface of your mesh. Sculptris has been designed to be as accessible as possible to any artist. The interface is easy to navigate, and every feature is easy to find. Even the most novice user can start creating in a matter of seconds. As you become more experienced, you will begin to discover new depths in the application. Your sculptures will be taken to the next level of creativity and detail as you get more experienced.

#9 MakeHuman

Free
Open Source
Online
Github
Linux
Mac
Windows

MakeHuman is a free open-source interactive modeling tool for creating custom 3D human characters. These characters can be modeled in minutes, and then can be used with many other modeling and rendering programs to incorporate realistic human figures into computer renderings and animations. Features that make this software unique include the tetra-parametric graphical interface and the Natural Pose System for advanced muscle modeling.

The main features of the platform include 3D modeling, 3D animation, rendering, posing, keyframe animation, 3d sculpting, 3d renderer, texturing, rendering with the graphics card, texture painting, support for scripting, UI customization, motion tracking, node-based, nonlinear editor, lightweight, physical rendering, and much more.

#10 Marmoset Toolbag

Paid
Proprietary
Online
Mac
Windows

Marmoset Toolbag is a suite of 3D modeling tools that enables you to perform rendering, texturing, and baking in real-time. Through this application, you can explore real-time raster and ray-traced rendering that is GPU accelerated in real-time. Through the platform’s new texture project system, you can create stunning and physically accurate materials. The platform provides profound image quality through image-based lighting and physically-based rendering in real-time.

You can create footage of your latest characters, decorations, product designs, and more. Use the embedded Turntable Toolbag or customize your own animation and camera sequences to proudly showcase your latest creation in motion. The key features of the platform include 3D animation, 3D modeling, rendering, posing, 3D sculpting, keyframe animation, texturing, 3D renderer, rendering with the graphics card, support for scripting, texture painting, UI customization, motion tracking, node-based, non-linear editor, physical rendering, lightweight, and much more.

#11 Toontastic 3D

Free
Proprietary
Android
iPhone
Tablet
iPad
Online

Toontastic 3D is an application that enables you to animate, draw, and narrate cartoons. It enables directors, authors, inventors, and musicians to convert their brilliant ideas into 3D cartoons. With the help of this application, you can break new stories, narrate swashbuckling adventures, science reports, and other ideas to life. Storytellers belonging to all ages now can deliver their idea in a unique way of animation. You can tell stories about your friends by adding photos and recoloring characters.

The salient features of the platform include A giant toy box filled with brave pirates, transforming robots, nefarious villains, and many more characters and decorations that spark children’s imaginations, Create your own characters using 3D drawing tools, Add yourself to your adventures with photos and characters of any color, Mix your soundtrack with dozens of built-in songs, Choose from three-story arcs for digital storytelling (short story, classic story, and scientific report), Export videos to your photo library to share with family and friends, and Lab of ideas, filled with fun stories, characters settings, and inspiring new adventures.

#12 RigModels.com

Free
Online

RigModels.com is a web-based platform where you can find animated characters for embedding them in your videos and games. It is a simple-to-use application. Just enter the keyword of the character which you want to find and the platform will display you several animated characters regarding your search. You can easily pick any of them and use them in your content.

The platform contains a wide range of A/T pose characters, Lowpoly models, and cartoon models. To use this online application, first, you have to register yourself and make an account on it. The program provides an opportunity to animate your own models. If you have designed any character for your game or video with care and skilled attributes, you can easily animate it with several gestures and actions options.

#13 Poser

Paid
Proprietary
Windows
Mac

Poser is a profound animation generating and 3D rendering software that enables you to easily create 3D models and animate them to use in your videos or games. The program is optimized for modeling human figures. It allows developers and digital artists to make digital images and 3D animations. The third-party digital content is also available on the platform. The platform contains a wide range of 3D figures which you can use to edit your stuff.

Poser provides the ability to interactively design 3D shapes, offering limitless possibilities for depicting human diversity, shape, and expression. Create in human form art, animation, illustration, comics, web, education, printing, medicine, storyboards, games, and much more.

#14 Cheetah3D

Paid
Proprietary
Mac

Cheetah3D is a 3D modeling, animation generation, and rendering software that enables you to create stunning and fascinating characters for your games and videos. The platform is widely used by developers and graphic artists to create characters for their games and videos. It is a powerful yet easy-to-use 3D modeling application that fits right in the world of computer-generated images.

The character release is part of the platform’s seamless animation system, in which almost all properties of an object can be animated. Your next iPhone game breathes life into a character, or with the powerful animation system built into this platform bring architectural flight to life. The main features of the platform include built for Mac, modeling, animation, dynamics, UV editing, scripting, rendering, file exchange, and much more.