Best Product Animation Software
7 Programs Professionals Use
According to this marketing survey, product video ads were the #1 way customers discovered a brand they later bought from. This means furniture manufacturers and retailers have a bigger chance to impress potential buyers and boost their sales when they use spectacular 3D videos for marketing and promo. Needless to say, those must be created by professional CG artists in the best product animation software to do the job.
When collaborating with a multidisciplinary 3D rendering company, brands get a turnkey project and a full pack of CG services. A 3D studio carries out all the 3D modeling, texturing, and animation and utilizes all the resources they have until they get satisfying results.
So how can manufacturers and retailers choose the right contractor for 3D furniture animation? First and foremost, one should make sure CG specialists work in the best product animation software and use advanced post production tools. So, here we go, the top-7 animation programs that every 3D animation expert should know.
#1. Autodesk Maya
Website: https://www.autodesk.com/products/maya/overview
OS: mac OS, Windows, Linux
Price: $1,545/year
Maya is known to be a multifunctional program that is perfect for modeling, texturing, and rendering. It also has advanced texturing and realistic effect tools so CG artists can create hair, cloth, leather, liquids, fog, and even explosions — literally any effect one might need! Such an extensive toolset makes Maya one of the best product animation software on the market. Moreso, Maya also allows CG animation artists to create their own scripts and plugins using Python and Maya-embedded language to deliver even the most complex projects.
#2 Cinema 4D
Website: https://www.maxon.net/en/cinema-4d
OS: mac OS, Windows
Price: $3,495 (perpetual)
Cinema 4D is another veteran of motion graphics and has a reputation as one of the best product animation software of all time. It has parametric, polygonal and volume modeling toolsets and a wide range of various plugins. Cinema 4D also offers advanced sculpting and texturing options to create any type of characters and 3D models for product design. Moreover, it supports Krakatoa, TurbulenceFD, and RealFlow rendering systems that provide highly photorealistic simulation effects for smoke, fire, water, fog, vapor, etc.
#3. Blender
Website: https://www.blender.org
OS: mac OS, Windows, Linux
Price: $0
Blender is free and powerful 3D software that has advanced 3D modeling and renderings toolsets. It allows CG artists to create, sculpt, edit and do retopology of 3D models and scenes before rendering and animating them. It also has robust simulation features and integrates with other animation software like Cinema 4D, Moho, Collada, Stop Motion Studio, Flipbook, or Crazytalk Animator. Moreover, Blender offers high customizability as it provides a Python API for scripting so CG artists can enhance features for any kind of project.
#4. Unity
Website: https://unity3d.com/unity
OS: macOS, Windows, Linux
Price: $1,800 yr/ per seat
Unity is a famous development platform most used by game designers. It has amazing simulation and lighting tools that allow creating immersive experiences for games, movies, VR, and AR. However, product designers can capitalize on it too and assemble scenes and environments for product animation as well as for architectural and interior projects. What’s great about Unity, it enables CG experts to work on the same project on multiple computers for productive collaboration and faster workflow.
#5. Houdini
Website: https://www.sidefx.com/products/houdini/
OS: macOS, Windows, Linux
Price: $4,495/yr for Houdini FX
Houdini is a 3D product animation software that provides CG artists with a fast and convenient workflow and allows them to share processes with other specialists. Being a flexible tool, it offers a slew of modeling tools to create complex models, scenes, and environments. Also, Houdini is based on render nodes. Those are the individual components that can be used as building blocks to create various rendering effects. It makes Houdini one of the best tools for VFX and gives CG artists unlimited creative freedom for all types of animation projects.
#6. KeyShot
Website: https://www.keyshot.com
OS: macOS, Windows
Price: $1,995 for Pro Version
KeyShot is one of the best product animation software for product design. Using it, CG experts can import CAD models from the software and animate them with life-life accuracy. This program has more than 750 preset materials and textures plus advanced lighting features. Therefore, one can recreate any furniture model in 3D and animate it in real-time. KeyShot supports over 35 common file formats so it is compatible and easy-to-use by various CG specialists.
#7. LightWave 3D
Website: https://www.newtek.com/lightwave/2020/
OS: macOS, Windows
Price: $995 (perpetual)
LightWave is a 3D computer graphics software that works perfectly for both animated and static 3D imagery. It provides cutting-edge texturing, lighting, and rendering as well as intuitive modeling and animated sculpting. LightWave is considered one of the best product animation software as it has separate platforms for rendering and animation. That allows CG specialists to work on different aspects of a project faster and more effectively, thereby saving their time and energy. It also has a VPR or Virtual Preview Renderer feature that offers fast feedback and accelerates the working process even more.
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Professional 3D animation artists from a CGI studio use all the best product animation software on the market and can easily pick the perfect option to successfully deliver your project. All the tools from the list have their pros and cons and are tailored to specific tasks. Therefore, before ordering 3D product animation, please consult studio managers and CG artists on your project and create a detailed brief with the requirements.
Need jaw-dropping product 3D animation for furniture marketing and promo? Reach out to us for 3D rendering services and get photorealistic CG videos that make your products shine!
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“Absolutely love this list of the best product animation software! As a designer, I’m always on the lookout for tools that can bring my creations to life, and these recommendations are spot on. From seamless user interfaces to powerful features, these software options cater to all levels of expertise. Can’t wait to try a few of these out for my next project!”