SketchUp is a 3D modeling program designed for professional architects, civil engineers, filmmakers, game developers, and related professions. It also includes features to facilitate the placement of models in Google Earth. It was designed to be more intuitive, flexible, and easier to use than other 3D CAD programs.
It is marketed as an easy-to-use conceptual tool with a simple interface. A well known feature in the SketchUp World is the 3D Warehouse. Users can use their Google Accounts to upload models, and then browse the 3D Warehouse for many components and models.
The Electric Image Animation System (EIAS) is a 3D computer graphics package published by EI Technology Group. It currently runs on the Mac OS X and Windows platforms.
Electric Image, Inc. was initially a visual effects production company. They developed their own in-house 3D animation and rendering package for the Macintosh beginning in the late 1980s, calling it ElectricImage Animation System. (To avoid confusion with the current product with its similar name, we will refer to this initial incarnation of the product simply as ElectricImage.)
CINEMA 4D is a commercial cross platform high-end 3D graphics application produced by MAXON Computer GmbH of Friedrichsdorf, Germany. It is capable of procedural and polygonal/subd modeling, animating, lighting, texturing and rendering, and is noted for being very easy to use and artist friendly among high end 3D applications and having a very flexible interface.
CINEMA 4D is a popular 3D application amongst matte painters in film largely due to the BodyPaint 3D functionality and is equally popular amongst motion graphics artists thanks to an excellent integration with compositing application pipelines coupled with a very artist-friendly and customizable workflow and interface. It has been utilized for films such as We Are the Strange, Polar Express, Open Season and Monster House.
AC3D is a 3D design program which has been available since 1994. The software is used by designers for modeling 3D graphics for games and simulations – most notably it is used by the scenery creators at Laminar Research on the X-Plane (simulator)
Initially developed on the Amiga, the code was then ported to Silicon Graphics workstations which used the GL graphics library. At that time, the user interface was implemented using X-Window/Motif. A Linux port was released onto the internet in 1994 (the GL graphics were replaced with OpenGL). A windows port followed when the X-Window interface was dropped in favor of the portable Tcl/Tk scripting library.
Blender is a free 3D graphics application. It can be used for modeling, UV unwrapping, texturing, rigging, water simulations, skinning, animating, rendering, particle and other simulations, non-linear editing, compositing, and creating interactive 3D applications.
3ds Max (formerly 3D Studio MAX) is a full-featured 3D graphics application developed by Autodesk Media and Entertainment. It runs on the Win32 and Win64 platforms. 3ds Max is currently in its eleventh version (as of April 2008) entitled 3ds Max 2009, which adds enhanced support for complex pipelines and workflows.
