Journey Into 3D #5

Recently a friend ask me about 3D softwares and I can see the disbelief when I said it cost around RM12,000 more or less for pro-grade application like 3ds Max. Ofcourse there are other cheaper alternative like Cinema4D (RM3500) which is quite good really. But there are also FREE software! No I don't mean pirated/cracked apps. Here I list two of the most reviewed 3D apps which is surprisingly good!

1) Blender
This app is the most talked about in the free 3D community. The feature set is almost like a full-blown pro-apps. And it is even competitive with some commercial apps too! You can't go wrong with this one if you want to start 3D. And you can't beat the price - it's FREE.


nice user interface!


Photorealism is not exclusive to pro-apps anymore!


I love frogs and this image is awesomely artistic too

See the full Feature & Gallery

A good place to start learning Blender:
Blender.org Tutorials
Blender.org Video Tutorials
Blender.org Help, Manual, and Support Forum
There are numerous other FREE resources & tutorials for Blender on the net. Just Google "Blender Tutorials".


The other free 3D software worth mentioning is...

2) Wings3D
I haven't really played with Wings3D and I don't really bother with it since in my opinion Blender has more features and support. But I've met a few who swears by Wings3D power. So, just visit the website, download & install, and see for yourself.

Wings3D Gallery
For Tutorials, as usual, use Google.

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Note
In all things artistic, its not the tools that is important - it is the artist. But a good tools do helps a lot in any case. Speaking of help, another important factor is the availability of resources: Tutorials, Forums, Support, etc. This is really important and I can't stress it enough. You'll understand once you start 3D :)