12 Best Software for 3D Animation You Should Know [Free & Paid]

Marketing your brand with animations is a great way to grab your audience’s attention, boost their emotional appeal and increase engagement.

Whether you’re creating a presentation, an employee training material or marketing your products, 3D animations make your message memorable in the minds of your audience.

However, finding the best 3D animation software to bring your ideas to life can be daunting, especially for beginners. With so many available options, it’s easy to get overwhelmed and confused about which software to choose.

In this article, we will explore the best 3D animation software for every designer, professional or hobbyist. We’ll cover various animation software options and highlight their features, pros and cons, to help you decide on the best software for your 3D animations.

 

Table of Contents

Quick Read

• The best 3D animation software includes Visme, Maya, Blender, Cinema4D, Unity, Clip Studio Paint, Clara.io, Autodesk’s MotionBuilder, K-3D, iClone 8, Cascadeur and Akeystu.
• With Visme, you get access to an intuitive platform that is beginner-friendly and offers a wide range of features and templates to help you create professional-quality animation products for proposals or marketing purposes.
• Try out Visme’s built-in animation tools and templates to start creating dynamic, attention-grabbing animated designs.

 

1. Visme

Visme is an intuitive cloud-based design tool that empowers teams to create visual assets, including data visualizations, animations, infographics and presentations, videos and more. With its extensive in-built animation and interactivity feature, you can enhance any visual content with dynamic, eye-catching animated designs. Be it animated presentations, infographics, banners, charts, graphs, graphics, newsletters and more.

Visme’s animation tools are classy and very intuitive. Create a more engaging experience by animating your design elements to make them pop off the page. You’ll find hundreds of animated presentation templates in many different styles and content types.

Let’s take a look at the exciting animation features inside Visme.

Main Features

Animated 3D Graphics and Illustrations

Visme’s animation software has over 450 3D animation graphics. Not only are our 3D graphics incredibly versatile, but we guarantee they’ll wow your audience and take your project to the next level.

Here are some ideas for using these 3D animation graphics:

• Use the 3D animation graphics to create engaging videos.
• Create engaging infographics using 3D animation graphics
• Add a 3D presentation to the first slide of your presentation to intrigue your audience.
• Use 3D animation graphics to create fascinating GIFs.
• Add 3D animation graphics to your presentation slide dividers.
• 3D animation graphics can be used to create social media graphics that stand out from the feed and capture audience’s attention.

Imagine being able to showcase your ideas with the most realistic visuals possible. You can also use characters, illustrations, gestures, special effects, cartoon avatars, and more to spice up your visual content and engage your audience’s attention.

Beyond our mind-blowing 3D graphics, Visme has a rich library of visually appealing 2D animations. Whether you’re looking to showcase a new product, promote your brand, or add extra visual interest to your website or social media channels, our 2D animations are the perfect way to make a lasting impression.

Slides Transition

Slides in a presentation can be animated to provide a more interesting transition between slides. The “slide transitions” option can be accessed by clicking the gear icon on any given slide.

You can choose when your slides should advance based on time. Here are some options:

• Transition delay
• Advance after
• On click
• When a video is playing (if a video is added to your slide)

These are some other slide transition options on Visme:

• Staggered Fade
• Enter from Side
• Enter from Bottom
• Enter from Top
• Zoom in
• Simple Fade
• Slide in

Animate On Click

You can decide when specific slides or information are displayed in the slideshow by using the On Click animation function.

It allows you to create animated enter and exit effects to your design elements to create a more dynamic piece of content.

You can set the timing for the animation and choose from various styles, such as:

• Fade in
• Fly from Left
• Fly from Right
• Fly from Top
• Fly from Bottom
• Gravity
• Zoom spin
• Show up
• Appear
• Bounce in
• Fly spin
• Swing
• Pop out

The animation timeline feature can also be used to customize scenes and sync audio.

Interactivity

Add some interactivity to your presentation to give your audience a more engaging experience:

• Interactive links
• Video embeds
• Voiceovers activated on click
• Call-to-action buttons
• Clickable pop-ups and hover effects

Third-party Integration

Connect with third-party integrations like Typeform, GIPHY, Loom, Google Maps and more to create personalized content.

Brand Assets

Visme lets its customers create branded presentation templates that can be easily applied to new projects, guaranteeing a uniform and polished look across all documents and media.

Visme’s Brand Kit gives you a streamlined system for managing and distributing brand assets, including logos, color palettes, and typefaces.  To save time and effort, simply inputting your website’s URL and automatically  import your brand’s elements using the Brand Wizard tool.

Sharing and Download Capabilities

Share your interactive content with your audience by embedding it on a web page, sharing an online link. You can share and publish projects directly from within the Visme editor. You can also download your designs in offline animated formats, including GIF, MP4 video and HTML5.

Hear what Anne McCarthy, the Senior Director of Learning Experience at EmployBridge said about her teams’ experience with Visme.

“It’s easy to create something in Visme quickly that looks like we sent it out to an advertising firm to design.”

“My whole team has been using Visme for several years, but now seeing the kind of work we’re producing, our marketing team wanted to start using Visme.”

“If it’s something we need to turn around really quickly, we’re jumping into Visme. We either put together a one-page piece that’s easy to absorb, or we’ve started creating little animated pieces.

We’ve set up branding templates for our EmployBridge brand, and we have specialty brands throughout the organization. So we’ve set up all of those brands and fonts, and it’s just made it so much easier.”

Pricing

There are four unique pricing plans offered by Visme to meet your specific demands as a designer.

With the free accounts, you have the basic tools necessary to get started with video creation. For $15 per month, you can upgrade to the Standard plan and gain access to quality video templates and assets.

The Business plan is priced at $29 per month and includes limitless projects and a Brand Kit. Enterprise plans are custom upon request.

Pros

• It is easy to use even without professional expertise.
• Visme’s collaborative interface fosters easy cooperation and collaboration among designers within a team.
• Data visualization capabilities makes it easy to visualize and understand data.
•  The comprehensive library of animated templates for different verticals offer multiple options for create professional-quality animations.
• Visme has a versatile library of 3D animated graphics, illustrations, characters, gestures, special effects, cartoons, avatars and more that’ll take your designs to another level.
• The slide dividers and transition effects will create a fully immersive experience for your audience.

Cons

A variety of design and customizability options can lead to a slightly steep learning curve.

 

2. Maya

Maya by Autodesk is a great 3D animation software that is used in the creation of detailed characters, the application of various Hollywood standard effects and the building of realistic and immersive virtual worlds.

3D modeling in Maya is done using nodes, which define and manage connections between characters and keystrokes, allowing for advanced adjustments.

Main Features

• An extensive effects modeling tool for complicated items such as fur, hair, clothes, fluids and particles.
• The ‘Cached Playback’ feature lets the user observe the changes they’ve made to their animation without having to create a playblast.
• It employs a proprietary advanced renderer known as Arnold, which allows for quick switching between CPU and GPU.
• Has a sophisticated computer graphics compositing program that allows users to combine 3D-rendered elements with motion data from film sequences.

Pricing

Maya offers a 30-day free trial access to new users, after which it would cost $235 monthly or $1,875 yearly

Pros

• It is a user-friendly software.
• The Special GPU-efficient design of the software helps boost processing and rendering speed and reduces the strain on the processor.
• Provides features like animation bookmarks and library plugins that help make the designer better organized.
• Its array of automation tools takes away a lot of the painful stress from the process of automation.
• The tool easily synchronizes data across the other Autodesk 3D content development tools, such as MotionBuilder and 3ds Max in real-time.

Cons

The subscription cost is relatively expensive.

 

3. Blender

Blender is an open-source animation software used for motion capturing and keystroke animation. It has a sophisticated rendering engine that produces stunning, ultra-realistic effects.

Blender’s comprehensive modeling features make it simple to generate, alter, sculpt and edit your models as you please.

Main Features

• Blender allows the creation of armatures (skeletons) for your 3D characters for easy manipulation of limbs.
• Blender has internal cameras that can present your 3D design in flat images (2D).
• There are multiple object tracking methods including manual tracking, auto tracking and planar tracking.
• It has an integrated game engine.

Pricing

Blender is open-source and free to use.

Pros

• Easy access to plugins for auto-rigging.
• Facial motion capture by applying marks on the face of the actor is possible on the software.
• Blender supports VR rendering.
• It is free to use.

Cons

• Users may need a long time to get the hang of how all the tools work on the software.

Simplify content creation
and brand management for your team

• Collaborate on designs, mockups and wireframes with your non-design colleagues
• Lock down your branding to maintain brand consistency throughout your designs
• Why start from scratch? Save time with 1000s of professional branded templates

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4. Cinema 4D

Though it is called Cinema 4D, this software is a 3D animation software like every other software on this list application. It is developed by a company called Maxon Computer and offers an array of tools to help designers recreate a great-quality representation of whatever image they hold in their imagination.

This 3D animation software’s real-time viewport, powered by OpenGL, allows users to manipulate and control the depth of field and screen space reflections.

Main Features

• Uses a peculiar procedural modeling and animation programming known as ‘MoGraph’ that assists the motion designer in creating complex and abstract animation.
• The Redshift Camera includes physical camera controls as well as Redshift Effect settings.
• It lets the designer choose between forward and inverse kinematics.
• Real-time viewport lets the user observe the outcome of the changes they make to textures instantaneously.
• Pyro-tags can be used in the simulation of smoke, fire and explosions.

Pricing

Cinema 4D’s standalone subscription costs £61 monthly or $736 yearly, while the full package including all of Maxon products costs £112 monthly or $1,352 yearly.

Pros

• It is very easy to learn how to use. To further reduce the learning curve, the publishers made thousands of free tutorial videos available on their ‘Cuniversity’ website.
• Available in 12 different languages including English, French, Spanish, Russian, Chinese, Arabic and others
• Includes hyper-realistic simulations.
• Can be easily integrated with other Maxon technology like Redshift, Red Giant, ZBrush and Forger.

Cons

It is costly to acquire and use, especially if the designer is looking to go full the full package.

 

5. Unity

Unity provides a fluid integrated game development engine for creating immersive and interactive games.

It is one of the most popular gaming engines and was used to develop popular mobile games like ‘Subway Surfers,’ ‘Among Us’ and ‘Call of Duty: Mobile’ and even console games like ‘Apex Legends’ and ‘Valorant.’

Main Features

• Designers can collaborate on the same project from anywhere in the world over the cloud with Unity Teams Advanced.
• It can be used on Windows, MacOS and Linux.
• Unity automates the non-creative process of 3D animation with features like shared compositions and accelerated rendering.
• Real-time rendering provides you with more immediate feedback during the design process.
• It is capable of rendering 4k resolutions in milliseconds.

Pricing

Unity has four Pricing tiers. The Free tier, Unity Personal, gets you started with learning to use Unity and gives you access to the latest version of the core Unity development Unity.

Unity Plus which costs $40 monthly/$399 yearly gives access to functionality and resources, while Unity pro coming in at $185 monthly/$2040 yearly, gives the ability to publish to multiple platforms and gives the user priority customer service. Unity Enterprise is a custom price plan tailored to large enterprises.

Pros

• Unity can also be used in 2D development as well as 3D.
  Shaders are included in the software to add shading to your image.
• It is compatible with models created in third-party apps like Blender, 3D Studio Max and Google Sketchup.
• It is a cross-platform software.

Cons

• It requires a powerful processor and graphics card to run smoothly. It makes it next to impossible for designers with fairly old or less powerful hardware to use the program.

 

6. Clip Studio Paint

Clip Studio Paint is largely a 2D drawing and animation program, but it also has some rudimentary 3D modeling and rendering capabilities. These capabilities include the ability to import 3D models, modify them in 3D space and render them from various camera perspectives.

Clip Studio Paint is a versatile and user-friendly software with a wide range of tools and animation features, making it popular among traditional and digital animators and designers.

Main Features

• Clip Studio Paint contains an integrated stabilizer for drawing smoother lines.
• It offers a companion app called “Clip Studio” that can be used to view and manage files and resources from a web browser or mobile device.
• Clip Studio Paint provides certain cloud-based functions using its Clip Studio account system. For instance, users can back up and store their projects to the cloud, as well as sync their settings across various devices.
• The tool offers timeline editing, onion skinning and frame-by-frame animation capabilities, making it suitable for both classical and digital animators.

Pricing

Clip Studio Paint offers a free 3-month free trial version. However, it can be bought with a one-time payment of $49.99 for the Pro package.

The Clip Studio Paint EX package, which consists of all of the Pro capabilities as well as advanced comic, webtoon and animation tools, can be purchased at a one-time fee of $219.

It also offers a monthly subscription plan of $4.99 that can be used on mobile devices (phones and tablets).

Pros

• The tool has a beginner-friendly User interface.
• Clip Studio Paint is compatible with other design software since it can import and exports different file formats.
• It can be used on every major smart device and computer, including Windows, Galaxy tabs, Chrome books, Android phones, iPhones, iPads and MacOS.
• The software is relatively inexpensive to acquire.

Cons

• Clip Studio Paint is not a comprehensive 3D animation software, so it may be lacking certain advanced features and tools that are available in dedicated 3D animation programs.
• The software has a limited rendering capability.

 

7. Clara.io

Clara.io is a web application used for 3D animation. Its rendering capability is provided by V-Ray, a reputable engine in the craft employed by many sophisticated 3D software applications. It is often used for the pre-visualization of feature films.

While it lacks some of the sophisticated functions and effects of more dedicated 3D animation software, Clara.io is a versatile and affordable tool that can be used for a myriad of modeling and animation projects.

Main Features

• Clara.io is a web application and can be accessed via any browser.
• It can perform basic modeling techniques like ‘push/pull’ modeling, chamfering, slicing, cutting and cycle animation.
• Using Interpolation, the tool can accurately estimate the number of frames between states defined by keyframes.
• Designers can embed interactive renditions of their 3D models and animations into a website.

Pricing

Clara.io is free to use. But it offers more cloud storage space, increased private scenes and increased rendering hours per month for a monthly cost of $10 and $100 for the Standard and Advanced package respectively.

They also offer custom pricing for commercial usage.

Pros

• The tool supports the highest number of file formats of any 3D animation program.
• Collaboration over the cloud is possible.
• Clara.io stores all of your design steps automatically.
• The tool can be used on any platform or operating system.

Cons

• The speed of the user’s internet connection can really affect their ability to work efficiently since it is a cloud-based application.

 

8. Autodesk’s Motion Builder

Motion Builder is another product from Autodesk’s line of 3D programs like Maya, previously covered above. It is a great tool for motion capture projects and it also works well for regular keyframe animation and virtual production.

Through a combination of the real-time architecture, animation layers and multimedia non-linear editing functionality, Autodesk MotionBuilder software streamlines the process of animating 3D characters.

Main Features

• Animation layers let you easily clean and refine motion captures over baked points.
• Its flexible rigging system makes for a hybrid IK/FK system without the traditional switches.
• The program supports the use of virtual cameras.
• Motion Builder features real-time animation providing immediate feedback to animators.

Pricing

Autodesk’s Motion Builder costs $2,145 per year

Pros

• The software is pretty simple to use.
• It seamlessly integrates with the other Autodesk applications (Maya, Mudbox and 3Ds Max).
• Autodesk Motion Builder makes the process of interpreting Motion capture data and applying it to 3D models straightforward.
• It is optimized to work with a large set of animation data.

Cons

• It is a very expensive software application to use.
• The user interface looks old and could use a redesign.

 

9. K-3D

K-3D is a powerful open-source 3D modeling and animation tool designed to provide users with a seamless and flexible workflow for creating stunning animations. It offers advanced animation tools like keyframe animation and algorithmic animation that allow users to create intricate animations with ease.

With a user-friendly interface, cross-platform compatibility and powerful features, K-3D is an excellent choice for artists and animators looking for versatile and customizable animation software.

Main Features

• Supports real-time previews and GPU acceleration making for faster rendering times.
• K3D supports polygonal modeling, including subdivision surfaces and mesh editing tools.
• The software has an advanced undo/redo system.
• The tool has an exclusive mirror feature that lets the designer edit one side of their 3D model and automatically translate it to the other side laterally inverted.
• It is highly customizable with scripting support for Python and Ruby.

Pricing

K-3D is entirely free to use.

Pros

• You can always go backwards (or forward after previously going backwards) in the design process.
• The tool has an easy-to-operate command line interface
• It is available on Linux and FreeBSD operating systems which are not very common.
• Supports a wide selection of plugins.

Cons

• It is not versatile as other paid 3D software.
• There are no user guides to help beginners.

 

10. iClone 8

iClone is a real-time 3D animation software that helps users easily produce professional animations for films, previsualization, video games, animation, content development and art.

The latest version, iClone 7 streamlines the complex world of 3D animation into a streamlined production environment that seamlessly combines character animation, scene design, and cinematic storytelling.

Main Features

• Advanced facial animation features include accurate lip-syncing animation, dynamic wrinkles and precise and balanced facial motion capture.
• An intuitive motion director and control of characters with the use of a mouse, keyboard or game controller.
• AI-assisted animation of Non-Player Characters.
• A professional multi-camera system and lighting controls for cinematic production.
• iClone 8 features an integrated 3D asset store, where you can purchase or download free 3D assets to use in your animations.

Pricing

iClone 8 can be purchased for $599

Pros

• It is the best tool for facial animations
• Saves the user the time and effort of creating their 3D assets
• 3D models are auto-rigged

Cons

There is limited flexibility when it comes to customizing animation as the user is constrained to the pre-built templates.

 

11. Cascadeur

Cascadeur is a relatively new 3D animating software developed by popular game publisher Nekki that offers a unique approach to character animation.

Unlike traditional keyframe animation, Cascadeur uses a physics-based simulation system to generate realistic and natural-looking motions for characters and objects.

This innovative software allows animators to set up physical rules and constraints to govern the movement of the character or object and then generate fluid, dynamic movement based on these inputs. Overall, Cascadeur provides animators with a powerful toolset for creating lifelike and engaging character animations.

Main Features

• A unique Physics-based animation style
• Assistive artificial intelligence/algorithm to help eliminate a lot of the boring parts of the animation process
• It offers a high level of customization for individual body parts and movements.
• Cascadeur also offers real-time feedback

Pricing

It is free to use except for designers and enterprises that require priority customer support and additional benefits. The Pro and Business plan cost $300/year and $1000/year, respectively. They also offer a custom Enterprise plan for companies looking for more control and support.

Pros

• An object’s position can be easily copied from one frame or scene to another.
• Motion capture technology is not needed.
• On their website, there are several tutorials aimed at both beginners and advanced users.
• Their unique approach to animation makes for more natural and dynamic movement than regular keyframe animation.

Cons

• Their unique approach to animation might present a steep learning curve to designers accustomed to the traditional approach to animation (keyframes).
• It is not as good for animating the motion of objects (non-human and non-animal motion).

 

12. Akeytsu

Akeytsu is one of the best 3D animation software with a unique intuitive circular widget that allows users to manipulate characters and objects in real-time.

The tool is compatible with popular gaming engines such as Unity and Unreal Engine, making it a compelling choice for game developers and other designers looking to create high-quality 3D animations for interactive media.

Main Features

• Intuitive User Interface where all of the useful tools are visible on the main screen.
• Their viewport-picking system supports direct interaction with the model.
• Cameras can be imported, created, rigged and modified within the Akeytsu app for filmmaking.
• A unique circular widget that acts as the application’s transform hub (move, rotate and scale) and is used for axis manipulation.

Pricing

Akeytsu has been free for everyone since it was sold to a video game school out of Lyon, France.

Pros

• Supports a non-destructive workflow that is users can go back and forth along the animation process to make changes without losing their work.
• Makes the switch between Inverse and Forward Kinematics seamless.
• It saves the time of animators with features like automated keyframing.
• The tool’s compatibility with gaming engines like Unity and Unreal Engine makes it a very versatile application.

Cons

There are fewer resources and tutorials online to help beginners because of its limited user base.

 

Create Stunning Animation in Seconds With Visme

If you’re looking for a comprehensive solution for your animation needs, we highly recommend trying Visme.

With Visme, teams of all sizes can access an intuitive, beginner-friendly platform that offers a wide range of features and templates to help them create professional-quality animations for various purposes, including marketing, sales, and product development and more.

Beyond making simple animation and videos with Visme’s video maker, the tool offers so much more. You can produce an almost infinite variety of visual content within record time. That’s why, in our humble opinion, it’s the best option you have here.

Sign up today and start bringing your imagination to life with Visme.