3D Rendering Programs are an essential factor of business for countless companies in this day and age.
You may be wondering: What exactly is 3D rendering, and why should I invest in it for my corporation?
3D rendering is when a software program turns a 3D model (made by a user) into a 2D digital graphic or image.
3D rendering is necessary for many digital media platforms to strive to their full potential. Multiple television shows, movies, video games, and websites require 3-dimensional graphics to function.
Top 9 Best 3D Rendering Software Tools
- LuxCoreRender – Can be useful for a variety of tasks, including envisioning architecture, tabletop decor, or images.
- Unity – Best for video games and animations.
- Spine – Most commonly used for architecture, visualizing room spaces and buildings.
- Keyshot – Typically used for picturing electronic devices such as cars; but can be used for a wide assortment of projects.
- Chaos V-Ray – Used frequently for architecture, video game design, animations, and more.
- 3HTi – Is used in car and location design, architecture, and other forms of animation.
- Lumion – Best for architectural design; such as room, house, and building design.
- Blender – Best for video games, animated shows, and visual effects.
- Autodesk Maya – Best for film and television animation, game design, modeling and architecture.
1. LuxCoreRender – Best for architecture, scoping room or tabletop decor, and animated images.
Pricing: Free.
LuxCoreRender was released in mid 2008 and has since racked up numerous customers and success. It is free and able to run on Windows, Linux, and Mac OS. Many popular brands have used LuxCoreRender and it can be used for multiple different projects.
| Pro | Con |
| Free download and use. | A bit slower to download and use than competitors. |
| Physically based rendering that realistically portrays light movement and material composition. | Not great for large-scale layouts due to it’s close-up attention to detail. |
| Accurate heterogeneous computing that gives a realistic look to many animations. | A bit hard to use and master, especially to those who are new to 3d rendering. |
| The ability to render a scene in an interactive or dynamic state. | – |
| Multiple different rendering algorithms to perfectly suit your project. | – |
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2. Unity – Best for video games and animated filmography.
Pricing:
- Free version is available.
- Plus Version: $399.00 per seat, per year.
- Pro Version: $1,800.00 per seat, per year.
- Enterprise Version: $2,000.00 per 10 seats, per month.
Unity was launched in mid 2005 and has updated and grown massively since then. It is largely used to animate numerous video games and short films. The most commonly known of these are Assassins Creed: Identity, Temple Run Trilogy, and Battlestar Galactica Online.
| Pro | Con |
| Free version is available. | Paid versions are more expensive than competitors. |
| Used in multiple big, reputable video games, films, and brand advertisements. | Is not compatible with AAA games. |
| Available on several different platforms and outlets. | Does not have the most realistic graphics. |
| Very easy and simplistic to use and navigate. | Not a good resource if you are looking for a program for anything other than video game design, or film animation. |
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3. Spine – Best for architecture, envisioning room spaces or decor, building plans, and other forms of animation.
Pricing:
- Free Trial.
- Education Version: Dependent on the amount of computers needed to download.
- Essential Version: $99.00 per user
- Professional Version: $349.00 per user
- Enterprise Version: $2,299.00 standing price, an added $299.00 per user.
Spine was first released in 2003. They strive to provide and deliver their clients with quality software and reliable content. Spine has been used for countless projects, including product ads, short animations, and envisioning decor and layouts for houses or buildings.
| Pro | Con |
| Versatile for many different types of projects. | The free version is only applicable for a week. |
| Free trial is available. | Paid versions are more expensive than competitors. |
| Offers multiple education and lessons. | Not very compatible with video games. |
| Services reliable brands like Discovery Channel, Sandals, T-Mobile, and Sunpower. | – |
| Realtime virtual reality, 360 virtual tours, 360 3D renderings, and augmented reality programs. | – |
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4. Keyshot – Used for numerous things, including envisioning cars, vehicles, virtual reality, electronics, and more.
Pricing:
- Free Trial.
- Keyshot 10 HD: $995.00 per user.
- Keyshot 10 Pro: $1,995.00 per user.
- Keyshot 10 Pro Floating: $2,995.00 per user.
- Keyshot 10 Enterprise: $3,995.00 per user.
- Education: $95.00 per student.
Keyshot was released in early 2010. It has features to convey realistic lighting and graphics to make your animation life-like. It is easy to use and navigate the design systems. You are able to create animations in real-time and see every aspect of your creation as you work.
| Pro | Con |
| There is a free trial available. | It takes a while to perfectly adjust materials in order for them to look realistic. |
| Realistic lighting for many projects. | According to some users, not all of the materials look life-like, and the wood and fabric could use some work. |
| Real-time animation. You can edit your project at any point and see it from multiple different angles. | The faux sunlight is not as realistic as the imitation indoor lighting. |
| You get the choice of either CPU or NVIDIA GPUs to ensure your project has the exact computing that you want. | The paid versions are more pricey than other rendering software platforms are. |
| A large majority of scientifically accurate materials for your animation to look as realistic as possible. |
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5. Chaos V-Ray – Best for architecture, envisioning room design, video game design, and other forms of animation.
Pricing:
- Free Trial.
- Commercial Products:
- Collection: $699.00 per user, per year.
- V-Ray: Ranges from $60.00-$80.00 depending on the platform you use.
- Render Node: Single Node: $167.00 per user, per year; 5 Pack: $750.00 per year; 10 Pack: $1,335.00 per year; 20 Pack: $2,340.00 per year; 50 Pack: $5,010.00 per year; 100 Pack: $6,680.00 per year.
- Phoenix FD: Ranges from $35.00-$70.00 depending on the products you use.
- Education Version: $149.00 per year
Bulgarian Chaos Group first released V-ray in 1997. They have had countless years of success following their opening. Customers love that the company has so much to offer and choose from in terms of prices and plans, animation tools, and more. You can create a wide variety of animations that are useful in video games, short movies, films, and anything else you can think of.
| Pro | Con |
| There is a wide variety of payment options to see what works best for you. | Very slow to render your animation or creation. |
| Free Trial is available. | Not very easy to navigate and learn. |
| Offers a payment plan for teachers and students in a school setting. | According to users, it is very slow to download. |
| The free trial lasts 30 days which is enough time to adequately test the system, and furthermore see if you want to go through with a purchase. | |
| Versatile for many different types of projects. | |
| Very realistic graphics to ensure your animation looks life-like. |
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6. 3HTi – Is commonly used in architecture, car design, room design and decor, and other forms of animations.
Pricing:
- Free trial
- 3HTi offers multiple different payment options, including Design Essentials, Design Advanced, Design Advanced Plus, Design Premium, and Design Premium Plus. You fill out a survey based on your needs and 3HTi will best match the price to what you need for the aforementioned plans.
- Standard: $1500.00 per user, per year.
- Professional: $2,100.00 per user, per year.
3HTi was first launched in 2002 and has loads of devoted customers. They have many different features to design, simulate, manufacture, and control your animation. They also have training and education services, which is perfect for both people who want to educate themselves on 3D rendering, and also school environments for students and teachers.
| Pro | Con |
| Free Trial is available. | Standard/Professional Plan is more expensive than competitors are. |
| Some of the payment plans are personalized to best fit your needs. | Not very realistic animations compared to other 3d rendering systems. |
| Very versatile. Can help and be useful with nearly all projects you need. | |
| Training is offered for people who want to learn and for students/teachers in school environments. | |
| It is very easy to both animate projects and graph statistical data. | |
| The ability to virtually blueprint plans for architecture and other building and tool structures. |
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7. Lumion – Best for architectural design such as house, room, and building structure and decor.
Pricing:
- Free Trial
- Lumion Standard: €1,499.00
- Lumion Pro: €2,999.00
Lumion was first released in late 2010. They strive to provide their clientele with reliable rendering tools to best succeed in your project. They recently released Lumion 11, which makes architectural challenges simple and easy to navigate. The animations (especially in this updated version) are very realistic and life-like.
| Pro | Con |
| There is a free trial available. | The free trial only lasts 2 weeks. |
| There is a version that is free for college students, which multiple customers love. | It is much more expensive than competitors. |
| You can see the overtime progress of your project with their animated phasing feature. | It is very hard to learn all of the tools that are available which hinders people’s full potential. |
| Realistic nature looks such as rain, fire, lighting, and the sky. | You can not model, which many users do not like. |
| Fine-point animation and details to make your work as life-like as possible. | |
| Very good resource for architecture rendering. |
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8. Blender – Best for animated short films, television shows, video games, and visual effects.
Pricing:
- There is a free demo offered.
- There is a free version available.
- Blender Cloud: $11.50 per user, per month.
Blender was first released in early 1994 and quickly gained popularity. This program makes it simple to design video games, television shows, short films, and images with visual effects. Recently, the most updated version was released. It is called Blender 2.96 LTS and now there are new improvements such as sample texture of materials, new nodes, shades, and geometrical features.
| Pro | Con |
| There is a fully free version available. | The software can be very challenging to learn how to use. |
| The versions that you can pay for have very cost-friendly prices. | The interface and program is notoriously unorganized. |
| The art and animation is very realistic. | Some users report that the application crashes at random times. |
| In the new update, Blender 2.96 LTS there are many new nodes that users love. | The program can be very overwhelming to new customers. |
| There are multiple useful quick keyboard short-cuts. |
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9. Autodesk Maya – Best for modeling, architecture, television and film animation, and game design.
Pricing:
- Free trial is available.
- Autodesk Maya gives you three payment options to best suit your needs.
- $215.00 per user, per month.
- $1,700.00 per user, per year.
- $4,590.00 per user, per every three years.
Autodesk Maya was first launched in early 1998 and has since rapidly gained success and popularity. The program is very versatile in the things you can do, as it can be applied to multiple different projects like architecture, game design, film and television animation, etc. They also offer training and certification courses. Which many customers love, as it benefits both people who want to learn and also students in 3d rendering classes.
| Pro | Con |
| There is a free trial available. | The system is notoriously hard to learn, especially for those new to 3d rendering software. |
| The free trial is 30 days long, which gives you lots of time to figure out the program. | Autodesk Maya is more expensive than competing 3d rendering programs. |
| Autodesk Maya is very versatile for many different projects (including video game design, architecture, film or television animation, and more.) | Users report that the system crashes often. |
| The program offers many different training and certification classes for individual learners and classroom settings. | Customers have said that overall, Autodesk Maya can be very slow at downloading and rendering. |
| The animation factor is quality-level and very realistic. | |
| Autodesk Maya is very good for modeling plans out. |