3D Modelling
- Newtek
- Creator of Lightwave -popular for commercials and many TV series.
- Softimage
- Softimage 3D and XSI modelling for Windows, Linux and IRIX. Used by ILM for Star Wars Episode 2.
- Maxon Cinema 4D
- The Cinema 4D range of software. Comprises GO, Se, XL and Art from entry level to professional. Good quality and very fast.
- Side FX software
- Home of Houdini. Supports Windows, Linux, Solaris and IRIX. Used in The Matrix and X-Men.
- Alias/Wavefront
- The Silicon Graphics company responsible for Maya and StudioTools.
- Impulse Inc.
- Not widely known these days but Imagine was a rival to Newtek Lightwave on the Commodore Amiga with features such as bones and morphing that are typically found only on higher end packages. The platform has now moved to Windows.
- Mental Ray
- An exceptional ray-tracer with interfaces for Softimage, Houdini and others. Runs on many operating systems.
- AC3D
- Andy Colbourne's shareware modeller. VRML. Renderman, Massive output. Runs on Windows IRIX, Solaris, HP-UX amd Linux.
- Blender
- Excellent free 3D modeller and video editor but only scanline output. Not a Number- the creators- are in receivership currently to it's future uncertain. Supports almost all OSs.
- MOPS spline based modeller.
- Freeware spline based modeller with Renderman output.
- Blue Moon Rendering Tools
- A superb rendering engine using Pixar's renderman interface. Free for non-commercial use.
- Radiance
- US Department of Energy developed rendered using radiosity. Free for non-commercial use.
- Rayshade
- Another free package, this one from Stanford University.
- Renderpark
- A rendering package that acts as a testbed for developing the latest photo-realistic algorithms.
- 3D Links
- Further links to 3D and graphic resources.
- POV Ray
- Persistance of Vision modeller and raytracer. Good quality ouput but requires manual coding of a scene or 3rd party modeller.
- SAL
- Scientific Applications for Linux. Modelling, graphic and other mathematics based software.
Painting and Off-line editing
AdobeProvider of Photoshop, Premier and Illustrator among others.
MacromediaProvider of Freehand and the Flash and Shockwave creation tools.
AvidAvid video editing software such as Xpress. Ranges from workstation class to high-end broadcast. Also storage solutions.
DiscreetHome of 3D Studio and Combustion as well as the high-end Flame and Inferno suites.
Broadcast 2000/CinelerraVideo players and a freeware editor for UNIX.
Puffin DesignsPinnacle Systems. Commotion is a video painting, compositing and rotoscoping package.
Film Effect Houses
Digital DomainJames Cameron's visual effects company.
Pixar
Company behind Luxo Jnr., Toy Story, Monsters Inc. etc. Also creators of the
Renderman renderer.
Animal LogicOne of Australia's biggest post-production houses. Worked on The Matrix.
Mill FilmsVisual effects company behind many films including Hannibal and Gladiator.
CinesiteVisual effects company. Provided scenes for the Tomb Raider movie.