Tej Kohli's Free Tools for Creating 3D Characters

Tej Kohli animation career blog helps 3D beginners to learn the basics of 3D animation with the simple guides and tutorials by Tej Kohli. In this article Tej Kohli talks about some FREE tools for making 3D characters which animators can use.

In the recent times, movies like Dreamworks's 'Shrek' series and Pixar's 'Toy Story' films have motivated a lot of people to try to develop 3d characters of their own. However, the computer hardware and software required to make such characters are very expensive. Fortunately, a developing open source software clan and a reasonably priced, high end computer hardware has made it accessible for anyone willing to put in his time and effort.

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  Blender – A free, open source software, Blender offers a huge range of features that are enough to create an ideal 3-D character. The package includes modeling, sculpting, rigging and rendering features, including skeleton creation with polygon meshes, and UV maps. Blender also let artists to add animation effects to their characters. Furthermore, its compatibility with all leading OS makes Blender an attractive free choice amongst animators.


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  Anim8or – It is another popular open-source program which is also free. However, Amim8or doesn't have some of the more advanced features of blender. But, it has all the functionalities required to create a 3D characters including primitives for structure building, splines for curvature and texture effects. Images can be exported in various standard image formats like .JPG and .BMP. It also has animation options.


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  3D canvas – Created by Amabilis, 3D canvas is available in both a free version and two, more sophisticated pay versions. While the free version provides basic introduction to 3D modeling and animation. The features include 3D primitives, real-time rendering, background images and splines.


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  DAZ Studio 3 – Basically developed for 3D character modeling, DAZ Studio 3 also comes in free and paid versions. Aimed at beginners, the free version also features the drag and drop functionality. It also comes with photo realistic and cartoon rendering options, primitives and background images. The make the character creation simpler, the software also provides free pre-made 3D models and accessories

Tej Kohli is an expert in animation and likes to share his knowledge with those just begining their career in animation. Tej Kohli blog is a place to find all the latest information about 2D and 3D animation.