What is the best 3D modeling software?

Question

27

Options
Considered

478

User
Recs.

Jun 27, 2020

Last
Updated

Here’s the Deal

The Best 1 of 27 OptionsWhy?

Best 3D modeling software	Price	Platforms	3D
94 Blender	Free	Windows, Linux, Mac, FreeBSD	Yes
76 ZBrush	$895	-	-
-- Wings 3D	FREE	-	Yes
69 Cinema 4D	-	-	-
-- Lightwave 3D	-	-	-

See Full List

26 Other Options Considered

ZBrush

Top Pro

Powerful brush system allows for lots of creativity

ZBrush lets the user sculpt an object in fine detail with customizable 3D brushes. See More

Top Con

UI is far from user friendly

Though, it's fully customizable. Like for any software, there is a learning curve. See More

Robert McVey's Experience

Have been creating with ZBrush since 1998-99 on various projects and will continue to use ZBrush on my digital projects. See More

Top Pro

Best for hi-poly modeling

Due to the nature of the program and how it uses high poly mesh sculpting it is best to consider this app when wanting high poly models, as that is what it aims to do best. See More

Top Con

Expensive

A single-user license for ZBrush costs $795. But, Pixologic has not charged a penny for upgrades to licensed users since inception. Anyone who has purchased Zbrush has not been left behind. See More

CalmDeaTacita's Experience

Many years down the road today I ask myself why I ever bothered with this piece of shit. I'm sorry but ZBrush is atrocious in that it has a horrible UI, terrible export management, no real 3d video support, dumb online software dongle system. Crappy support with snide replies to otherwise reasonable questions. They really don't care about their users just their money and perfect stars about their awful software. See More

Top Pro

Can easily simplify mesh topology

Meshes sculpted with ZBrush can contain billions of polygons, but tools are provided to cleanly reduce the poly count. See More

Top Con

An odd perspective view

Does not lend itself to cinematic or artistic renderings due to a strange perspective system found nowhere else in 3D which warps according to the relationships between models and rendering viewpoint - there is no real 'camera'. It is sufficient for rendering your work on a sculptural piece or industrial design, but KeyShot Pro or any other PBR rendering program that uses a camera are recommended for scene rendering, at least in 4R7. See More

Top Pro

Has low poly modelling tools with 4r7 version

Top Con

Hi-poly only

Not, the case as there is now the Zmodeller Brush system which has a full suite of polygon Modelling options. See More

Top Pro

Plays well with others

Can transfer work between other packages via AppLink and/or Bridge seamlessly. See More

Top Pro

Always evolving and innovating

Every iteration of Zbrush has evolved beyond the last and has kept all other 3D package devs on their toes consistently. See More

Top Pro

Best support

No other 3D package has had continued support from their parent company or community like ZBrush has had since inception. See More

See All

Cinema 4D

Top Pro

Clean UI

Customizable floating palettes and configurable view panels let screen space be dedicated to the artwork, not the interface. See More

Top Con

Expensive

Starts at $995.00 with the complete version costing $3,695.00. See More

CalmDeaTacita's Experience

Better than Modo and Lightwave even Maya, also better for its texturing and painting over stuff like ZBrush. Too expensive if your just in it for the painting tools. See More

Top Pro

Easy to learn

Cinema 4D is heralded for its approachability. New users are not hindered by lack of familiarity with similar tools. See More

Top Pro

Includes great tools for animation and motion graphics

Mograph is a set of tools in C4d that speeds up the process of making animations and motion graphics. See More

Top Pro

Useful content browser

Cinema 4D comes fully-loaded with an extensive library of preset objects, materials and scenes that make it easy to get started with your 3D project. Use this outstanding resource to quickly develop concepts without spending time modeling (or wasting money buying models), or dissect complete scenes created by top C4D artists to develop your own skills. These highly curated libraries are custom-tailored to specific markets, with a wide variety of assets including models, materials and customizable presets. See More

Top Pro

Sketch & toon

Very flexible toon rendering solution helps you to create amazing 2D cartoon style renders. See More

See All

Lightwave 3D

Top Pro

Support for Python scripting

In addition to Lscript, Lightwave supports Python. See More

Top Con

Two applications: one for modelling and another for layout

TolerantHeimarmene's Experience

Easy and very powerful as modeling to model all type kind of 3D. Animation is very great too. See More

Top Pro

Powerful nodes shaders

Top Con

Not beginner-friendly

Lightwave has mediocre tutorials and a complex multi-application workflow. See More

SpontaneousWuGang's Experience

The only all-in-one tool; do full professional products with nothing else. Gorgeous rendering See More

Top Pro

Powerful animation tools

IntelligentTezcatlipoca's Experience

Flexsible. See More

Top Pro

Plays well with other software

Top Pro

Beginner friendly with a very smooth learning curve

Top Pro

Great community support

Top Pro

Great value for the price

See All

Sculptris

Top Pro

Free

Sculptris is provided free of charge from Pixologic. See More

Top Con

No Linux version

Only for Windows and Mac. See More

Tanmay Khelkar's Experience

It's pretty good for a free software but its nothing to compared to the industry standard ones. It lacks base mesh creation tools and sculpting tools for additional detailing and model manipulation. See More

Top Pro

Sculpting allows for easier creative expression

Sculptris has great editing tools that allow designers to concentrate on sculpting and completely immerse themselves into making models, forgetting about all the complex methods modelers usually have to use in their daily business. See More

Top Con

Limited sculpting toolset

CalmDeaTacita's Experience

When a company is divided on what their actually trying to sell. See More

Top Pro

Works on Lower-End Devices

Sculptris is essentially a lesser version of ZBrush that works on low-end PCs. See More

See All

Autodesk Maya

Top Con

Pricey

Don't expect to get Maya cheap. It is considerably more expensive than lesser 3D programs. See More

Top Pro

Myriad of features

Has an extensive list of tools for modelling, look development, rigging, animation, rendering and exporting. See More

CalmDeaTacita's Experience

Get Maya LT then complain even more :) See More

Specs

Pricing:Free trial version for 30 days or $1,620 /year for the Commercial version

Top Con

Poorly organized interface

The menu organization doesn't make sense, and leaves you searching all over the place for functions that should fall under one category. For example, the option to bake your animation isn't under the Animation menu. See More

Top Pro

Industry standard

Maya has been the industry standard for 3d modelling and animation for years. See More

EnterprisingEiresione's Experience

Maya is not significantly better than other 3D modeling packages in any way, despite the common retort, "It's the industry standard". It has no actual advantage over other 3D software at all, and is way over-priced. See More

Top Con

Difficult to learn

Expect to look at tons of tutorials. See More

Top Pro

Combining powerful, realistic rendering with ease of use

Arnold is now the default interactive renderer, which can be found in the render settings. Solid Angle's global illumination ray tracer is used by many Hollywood studios. See More

LearnedGleti's Experience

Way to expensive See More

Top Con

Unstable

The system can just crash unexpectedly. See More

Top Pro

Extensible

The MEL language allows one to either write custom scripts or to download them. See More

Top Pro

Support

Extensive support from Autodesk and users around the world. See More

See All

Modo

Top Pro

Unparalleled modeling pipeline

Even long-standing Maya users envy Modo's modeling toolset and pipeline for its power, flexibility, and speed. See More

Top Con

Not good for animation

CalmDeaTacita's Experience

Horrible piece of shit software, better to go straight to Autodesk. Even Blender is a better option sad to say. See More

Top Pro

User-friendly

It's very easy to get the grasp of the modeling work flow. See More

Top Con

Very unstable with too many bugs that were never fixed

LearnedGleti's Experience

Great value for the price See More

Top Pro

Great value

The new subscription-based licensing option brings entry costs down to $599 / year for floating licenses and promises even faster feature development. See More

Top Con

Very slow viewport performance

Top Pro

MeshFusion

MeshFusion is a procedural boolean-based workflow that helps you to create complex meshes effortlessly. See More

Top Pro

Decent user interface

Top Pro

A lot of learning resources exist for this program

There are great support resources for newcomers and pros alike. See More

See All

VECTARY

Top Con

You have to be online

Top Pro

Free

Specs

Supported platforms:Windows, Mac, Unix, Chrome OS

Service integrations:Figma, Sketch

Exports:More than 60 file formats, including USDZ, GLTF, FBX

Import:3D and 2D formats

See All Specs

Top Con

Subject to frequent change

As this tool is rather new, it tends to change often, it may confuse sometimes, but generally the change makes it better See More

Top Pro

Simple UI

Top Pro

Visually stunning

The feel of this app is really good and the beautiful design helps the overall experience. See More

Top Pro

Fast-evolving

This tool is progressing very nicely and often brings out new cool features. See More

Top Pro

Any operating system

Top Pro

Browser based - no install required

Top Pro

Easy-to-learn

Top Pro

3D printing ready

Top Pro

Free online support

Top Pro

Great for educational use

Since there's no need to install any application, VECTARY can be a great tool for teaching 3D modelling in schools as well. Students only need to make an account and they can use the same software both in their school labs and their own PCs. See More

See All

3D-Coat

Top Pro

Voxel sculpting

Voxel sculpting is entirely free from the bounds of polygons and topology. See More

Top Con

7 layer restriction in the affordable version

The cheapest version available only lets you paint on 7 layers, which is very unfortunate. See More

CalmDeaTacita's Experience

Remember to share you demons and cocks with its creator for a full refund! See More

Top Pro

A fast and fun way to UV

3D coat has made UVing my work go super fast and it's actually quite fun because you're finished in a breeze. See More

Top Con

Not a voxel program

This is a paid texture program. Why is it in this list? See More

Top Pro

Link to Photoshop, or any app that can open PSD files

You can save and open your texture work in apps like Photoshop, work on them and send them directly back to 3D coat. It will remember your layers and update. See More

Top Con

Voxel sculpting hits your system

Voxel is quite heavy on your computer, if you intent to use this as your main model and sculpt app do enough research to see if your computer can handle it and if you have the right graphic card for it. If you really have doubts , just go ask in the forums. See More

Top Pro

PBR materials

3D Coat supports the creation of your own PBR materials that are ready to be used in the PBR workflow. See More

Top Pro

Professionals recommend 3D Coat for Handpainted textures

You can texture in many styles with this app, but when it comes to Handpainting, as seen in World of Warcraft and Torchlight, 3D Coat is the one that many professionals will advice you to as their top choice. See More

Top Pro

A known app for retopology

3D coat is also known in the game industry to be a great app to preform retopology. See More

See All

Rhino3D

CalmDeaTacita's Experience

Fuck you Apple everything!! See More

3D Studio Max

Top Pro

Huge community

As a top-end industry standard tool, 3DS Max users benefit from a rich ecosystem of third-party tools and community knowledge. See More

Top Con

Expensive

A 3DS Max license can be purchased outright for $3675. Subscription plans are available from $122.50/mo (for a full year commitment). See More

Top Pro

Excellent viewport performance

3DS Max is extremely responsive. See More

Top Con

Can no longer purchase perpetual license

It is now $185/month, $1,470.00/year, or $4410/4years - subscription only. See More

Top Pro

Great polygon modeling

Great for poly-modeling for both high and low polygon counts. See More

Top Con

Unstable and outdated

Bugs carry on from version to version. Lots of old code that still runs on one thread, even if modern systems offer 16+ threads. See More

Top Con

Only for Windows

See All

SolidWorks

Top Con

Expensive for individuals and freelancers

Solidworks typical clients are big organizations, so buying licenses can be quite expensive for individuals. Usually they only sell them in packs and will only give quotations when requested directly. See More

Top Pro

Easy CAD model exchange

Because Solidworks is so used, most companies/universities/research institutes have at least some licenses for it, even if it's not their main CAD program. This facilitates exchanging CAD models in native formats between institutions. See More

CalmDeaTacita's Experience

An impressive overly expensive piece of shit software, only morons trained from a different century in it can help you solve real world problems that no longer exist example the bubonic plague. See More

Specs

Platforms:Windows

License:EULA

Top Con

Weak analysis modules

Solidworks has analysis modules ( structural, thermal, flow, ... ), but they are quite simplistic and their solving abilities aren't the best, so analysis results should be looked at with a critical eye. These modules should only be used for preliminary analysis. See More

Top Pro

Advanced modelling

Solidworks is one of the most advanced, commercial CAD applications on the market today. For solid modeling, it uses a parametric and feature-based philosophy. Its operations library is enough to build the products/objects that most designers/engineers will ever need to model. See More

See All

SketchUp

Top Pro

Customizable interface

Top Con

Doesn't have a built-in renderer

Áron Kovax's Experience

Sketchup has a free version, and a pro version, made for architects too. The basic modeling is very easy, the interface is customizable. I love it. See More

Top Pro

It is easy to learn

Top Con

Complex modeling is hard

CalmDeaTacita's Experience

Do you enjoy buildings and origami and google up your rear end? Congrats that's Sketchup! See More

Top Pro

Tons of extensions

Top Pro

Easy to use

The basic modelling is very easy for beginners too. See More

Top Pro

Runs everywhere

Windows, macOS and right in a web browser; SketchUp runs on almost any desktop computer. Models are also viewable on iOS, Android and a wide range of VR/AR devices including Microsoft Hololens, Windows Mixed Reality, HTC Vive and Oculus Rift. See More

See All

K-3D

CalmDeaTacita's Experience

An effective modeller if your coming from Wings and Blender land. See More

Meshmixer

Add Video or Image

MilkShape

Top Con

Slow updates

Somewhat abandoned. See More

Top Pro

Cheap to obtain

At a cost of just $35 (or 25 euros) it is not that expensive in order to obtain access to the program. See More

CalmDeaTacita's Experience

A funny lil app from the days of yore, when people couldn't afford to pay Autodesk royalties and games were still in their diapers. This thing was a stand in between importing exotic file formats modifying your game models and re-exporting them to different formats. Beyond that it was not really a modeller just a cheap hackers toy in most cases it worked, but then again game engines were shit back then and so it made sense. See More

Top Con

Outdated

See All

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Blender

Top Pro

Free and open source

Blender is licensed under the GPL. Some Blender modules such as the Cycles rendering engine are licensed under the Apache 2.0 license. See More

Top Con

Difficult learning curve

Blender is not a very intuitive 3D modeling software. It has its own ways of doing things, and it is often hard to guess how to achieve simple tasks. See More

Pi-Qui Baltink's Experience

I am a Maya certified animator who now works with blender. I use Maya for particle systems, the rest is done in blender. If you have a Radeon card you can use Radeon Prorender, works fast and really good results. See More

Specs

Platforms:Windows, Linux, Mac, FreeBSD

3D:Yes

Desktop targets:Windows; Macintosh; Linux

Mobile targets:none

See All Specs

Top Pro

Python extensibility

Blender embeds Python 3, which can be used to write add-ons, tools, extend the interface, rig characters and automate tasks. See More

Top Con

Too many possibilities, no unified workflow

The operations are not optimized enough for specific tasks. See More

DecisiveSirtir's Experience

Great, amazing tool! I use it all the time with Unreal Engine. See More

Top Pro

Powerful animation suite

Blender provides a full rigging system, and automates animation by interpolating between keyframe positions. See More

Top Con

Poor particle system

The Blender particle system can at times be a little limiting and finicky (and buggy) to get working. Even if it can get most straight forward jobs done, it is far from the most advanced system, and could benefit largely from advancements. See More

Nathan R's Experience

Blender is an awesome and free program that covers every single aspect of 3D design. Blender significantly reduced the learning curve by improving the user interface in the new 2.8 update. The program has a very active community and many plugins are available. Blender also has a very extensive Python3 scripting language. The program has many online tutorials and is one of the most powerful programs installed on my computer. See More

Top Pro

Has a powerful rendering engine

Blender runs the Cycles path tracing engine under the hood. Cycles is a very powerful rendering engine capable of full path tracing (light fall off, caustics, volumetrics). It is mostly compatible with OpenCL and CUDA rendering, and is implementing mycropolygon displacement features. The upcoming release has a viewport engine called EEVEE whereby you can see and interact with your work in render mode in real time! See More

Top Con

The physics engine is a bit lagging behind, especially the destruction physics

CalmDeaTacita's Experience

MASTER RACE!! Even Autodesk fears it. See More

Top Pro

Wide import and export format support

Support lots of modern 3D formats including DAE and FBX - ideal for game developers. See More

CompassionateMacGreine's Experience

Im using it professionally See More

Top Pro

Supports both low-poly and hi-poly modeling

HumbleKingu's Experience

Awesome See More

Top Pro

Regular release schedule

Releases are made every ~3 months. See More

studioMagicalFox's Experience

Blender is full featured and free. Initial learning curve is steep but once you get used to it everything makes sense. Automate workflows or refactor the UI with Python. Lots of support from developers and user community. Consider the price of any other comparable tool and using Blender becomes a no-brainer. See More

Top Pro

Includes video editing & compositing tools

Blender's node-based compositor has comprehensive video sequencing and post-processing features. See More

EnterprisingEiresione's Experience

Because Blender is hotkey-oriented, you can (with practice) execute commands about as fast as you could play a musical instrument. It may be the modeling tool on earth. You can create an entire advanced model in full-screen without ever seeing the UI at all. See More

Top Pro

Sculpting and 3D painting features

Although Blender's 3d painting and sculpting tools (mostly painting) are not at par with specialized software like Substance Painter, ZBrush, or Mari, it is more than capable of getting most jobs done if the user takes the time to learn and understand it. See More

IndustriousViracocha's Experience

Love the software See More

Top Pro

Keyboard shortcuts

Good keyboard shortcuts for everything. Keep your left hand on the keyboard and your right hand on the mouse. See More

Gerhard Eichhorn's Experience

Difficult but powerful. See More

Top Pro

Node based modeling support

Top Pro

Very useful for a freelancer

It offers a round solution (it covers many areas and professional fields) for a freelancer, for free, constantly updated, very polished, and allowing high quality results that clients do require. After some learning, it becomes very useful for professional work. See More

Top Pro

Has a large community

There's a huge community to help you get started immediately. See More

Top Pro

Coherent and streamlined workflow / internal use logic

The trick with Blender is to get used to its usage philosophy, as it keeps consistent through all the application. Once you get it, every feature or addition is learnt naturally, almost effortlessly. See More

Top Pro

Very versatile

You don't have to switch between software when you want to do different things. Because modeling, sculpting, composting, video editing etc can all be done in blender. See More

See All

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The Best 1 of 27 OptionsWhy?

My Recommendation for Blender

My Recommendation for Blender

Free and open source

Difficult learning curve

Python extensibility

Too many possibilities, no unified workflow

Powerful animation suite

Poor particle system

Has a powerful rendering engine

The physics engine is a bit lagging behind, especially the destruction physics

Wide import and export format support

Supports both low-poly and hi-poly modeling

Regular release schedule

Includes video editing & compositing tools

Sculpting and 3D painting features

Keyboard shortcuts

Node based modeling support

Very useful for a freelancer

Has a large community

Coherent and streamlined workflow / internal use logic

Very versatile

26 Other Options Considered

My Recommendation for ZBrush

My Recommendation for ZBrush

Powerful brush system allows for lots of creativity

UI is far from user friendly

Best for hi-poly modeling

Expensive

Can easily simplify mesh topology

An odd perspective view

Has low poly modelling tools with 4r7 version

Hi-poly only

Plays well with others

Always evolving and innovating

Best support

My Recommendation for Wings 3D

My Recommendation for Wings 3D

Fast and easy

Doesn't work with a graphics tablet like Wacom.

Free, open source & cross-platform

My Recommendation for Cinema 4D

My Recommendation for Cinema 4D

Clean UI

Expensive

Easy to learn

Includes great tools for animation and motion graphics

Useful content browser

Sketch & toon

My Recommendation for Lightwave 3D

My Recommendation for Lightwave 3D

Support for Python scripting

Two applications: one for modelling and another for layout

Powerful nodes shaders

Not beginner-friendly

Powerful animation tools

Plays well with other software

Beginner friendly with a very smooth learning curve

Great community support

Great value for the price

My Recommendation for Sculptris

My Recommendation for Sculptris

Free

No Linux version

Sculpting allows for easier creative expression

Limited sculpting toolset

Works on Lower-End Devices

My Recommendation for Autodesk Maya

My Recommendation for Autodesk Maya

Pricey

Myriad of features

Poorly organized interface

Industry standard

Difficult to learn

Combining powerful, realistic rendering with ease of use

Unstable

Extensible

Support

My Recommendation for Modo

My Recommendation for Modo