Today we are going to talk about 4 amazing 3D software for character creation that can help you create characters. It doesn’t require advance modeling techniques that are usually necessary for professional modeling and animation software.
- 3D modeling software includes programs that design basic three-dimensional models of objects or characters, and often include supplemental features to flesh out models with realistic details. 3D modeling products can create models with a variety of approaches and tools, and often include 3D painting features to add textures and color.
- Blender is a free and open-source 3D character design software. It is one of the best 3D modeling software on the market. Blender provides support for 3D channels for multiple areas such as animation, modeling, rendering, video editing, rigging, game character and more.
Can you actually use these 3D software for character creation as a beginner?
It’s certainly surprising to speak about 3D character creation using adjectives like “easy” or “beginner”, right? But it’s actually the case with these tools specifically: you can very much start your learning journey with them. Although some basic knowledge will be great to make the learning curve a little less steep, it’s definitely not necessary. One of the reasons is the fact that these 3D software for character creation are exclusively dedicated to this task in particular. This will make the toolset a lot more accessible and less overwhelming at first approach. If your interested in learning character creation in depth, check our previous post that includes awesome Blender character creation courses. So let’s dive in!
4 – Make Human
MakeHuman is a free and open-source 3D software that was designed for the prototyping of photo realistic human characters. It was developed by a community of programmers, artists, and academics interested in 3D character modeling.
3D modeling is a technique of creating a mathematical representation of any surface of the object in 3 dimensions using a specific tool. The software for 3D modeling is a computer graphics application used to create models on - three-dimensional space.
Humans are created through the manipulation of controls that allow for the blending of different human attributes to create unique 3D human characters. The controls are intended to provide the user with a simple way to create characters that give expression to the widest possible range of human forms.
MakeHuman was actually one of the most popular Blender addons written by Manuel Bastioni, artist and coder, in 1999. A year later, a team of developers had formed, and they released the first version of MakeHuman for Blender. The project evolved, and in 2003, it was officially recognized by the Blender Foundation. The development stopped for a period of time due to some difficulties and obstacles until 2014 when a stable version was released.
Find the software here: http://www.makehumancommunity.org/content/downloads.html
3 – Poser
Poser is a 3D rendering software package for the posing, animating, and rendering of 3D human and animal figures. Poser allows you to load figures, props, lighting, and cameras for both still and animated renderings.
It comes with a large library of pre-rigged human, animal, robotic, and cartoon Models. The package also includes poses, hairpieces, props, textures, hand gestures, and facial expressions. since poser is not created for modeling objects and characters, a large community market of artists has emerged, in which Poser content is created and sold through various third party channels.
Poser’s interface has evolved since the product’s introduction in 1995. The current Poser preserves many of the application’s original interface elements so that legacy users can move into the newest version and navigate without relearning the program’s controls.
Poser is available for both Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X operating systems. You can find further information on the official website: https://www.posersoftware.com/downloads
2 – Daz Studio
Daz Studio is one of the most popular 3D software for character creation that are fully free, developed by Daz 3D. It is a 3D scene creation and rendering application used to produce still renders as well as animation videos.
Renders can be done by leveraging either the 3Delight render engine, or the Iray render engine, both of which ship for free along with Daz Studio, or with a variety of third-party render engine plugins for Daz Studio from various vendors and companies. These render engines include Luxrender and Octane render.
Daz Studio is popular among many artists in different industries because it is being used for many purposes.
For example for those who have ideas but they don’t have artistic skills, this software can be great especially for those who want to create character illustrations for books, book covers, or even comic books.
The idea is basically to customize your characters, create some background, bring some objects and give them life. The software will come in great help when adding the expressions and the right poses and later you can render it or take it a 3d animation software or take it a 2D software such as photoshop if you want to.
Daz Studio also supports the import and export of various file formats for 3D objects and animations to allow for the use of other 3D content within Daz Studio, as well as to get content out of Daz Studio for use in other 3D Software. Download it for free, no questions asked: https://www.daz3d.com/get_studio/
1 – Character Creator
Reallusion has one of the best and fastest 3D software for character creation known as Character Creator. Character Creator is a full character creation solution for designers to easily create, import, and customize stylized or realistic looking character assets for use with iClone in addition to the Popular 3D animation packages like Maya, Blender, and game engines such as Unreal Engine, Unity, or any other 3D software as well.
It is a time and resources saver if you use it the right way. It allows artists to create characters easily and intuitively. First of all, using the morphable body shaping tools that allow you to customize a character to any size, or shape, whether it be tall, short, fat, slim you name it. You can also change other body features like hair, clothes, and so on. And it works smoothly with other character creation software such as Daz studio by allowing to import certain elements or complete characters to be customized further in the Character creator.
And to provide further flexibility you can actually take your character to sculpting software such as Zbrush to add more details. Also, you can add your custom materials and textures in software such as Substance Painter and custom clothes in software such as Marvelous Designer to be added to your character inside Character Creator. And much more.
Posted By Lucie Gaget on Jan 24, 2018 |
3D modeling software is used by character designers for animation, illustration, cinema and video-games. This kind of software is essential to create complex characters, or creature designs for science-fiction movies for example. Obviously, efficient software is required in order to create really detailed and realistic designs. It can also be used for rendering, and even for 3D printing. Indeed, some software dedicated to character design are offering the possibility to get 3D models optimized for 3D printing. This way you could 3D printing your 3D character, for professional or personal purposes. It is a good way to make miniatures to work on design and details.
In this blogpost we will see more precisely what is 3D character design, and what are the best software to create 3D characters. Thanks to this top, you will find the software that will perfectly fit your needs, and that will help you with your design projects.
3D modeling software and character design: The perfect match
Choosing the good 3D software
3D software is now an essential tool to create character designs. Thanks to these efficient programs, the possibilities are becoming endless for concept artists or professional designers, in charge of the creation of 3D characters for various projects. In order to create the perfect figure, you have to choose the good software to get an optimized result.
3D modeling software allows working on many different aspects, such as sculpture, painting or texture. Some of them are better for renderings, others are more used for cinematographic purposes. There is also software specially made for 3D character creation, which will be more efficient to work on morphologies or expressions in order the create a unique character.
Character modeling is not for everybody
Chara design is not just for anyone. It requires a lot of knowledge and practice in order to get impressive results, and very detailed characters. A real character designer knows how to create human-like models, with fluid gestures and good body topologies.
Digital art designs are a real job, that is why some software tools are quite complex, they are not made for art enthusiasts. Moreover, even if you are experienced with 3D modeling software, character modeling requires a lot of practice. Indeed, being creative is not enough. 3D artists have a lot of knowledge regarding 3D character creation: for example, the visual aspect of the 3D figures has to match with the character personality and psychology. They have to take into account a whole background and it also has to match with the visual identity of the project.
What is the best specialized 3D software to design 3D characters?
Some software tools are made especially for chara design. We made a selection of the best software, for amateurs and for experienced users.
MakeHuman
MakeHuman is a free and open source 3D modeling software. It can be used to create a 3D character for any application, from illustration to cinema. This open source software is perfect for beginners, it has an intuitive interface and all the various parameters are easy to use. There are for example a lot of facial features. This design software offers 1170 morphings for effective parametric modeling, allowing to work on body proportions, faces, eyes, etc. MakeHuman is offering a lot of possibilities, especially for amateurs, with no previous experience in 3D modeling. However, you will not be able to make realistic rendering with this open source software.
Daz Studio
Daz Studio is a free composition and rendering software. Thanks to this program you will be able to modify characters so they can fit your needs. There are different platforms available inside Daz Studio:
- Victoria 4, that is offering high polycount and a large selection of morphs to apply to your 3D figure.
- Genesis, that will allow you to work on body morphs.
- Genesis 2 & 3, perfect to work on movements and articulation.
- Genesis 8, that will allow you to create realistic renderings and work on the expressions of your characters.
You can easily export your creation to the 3D modeling software Maya, in order to create more detailed figures. Also, it is possible to create 3D models optimized for 3D printing.
https://www.daz3d.com/get_studio
iClone
iClone is a 3D software specially made for animation work and developed by Reallusion. It is used by animators, filmmakers, for animation, cinema and even video games. It is a design software for professionals. iClone allows doing freeform body morphing, to work on facial animation and body motion. This software offers a wide range of creation tools: among them, you can find Character Creator, a perfect solution to make fully-rigged figures for animation projects. It will allow you to generate unlimited human faces and bodies, that you can modify as much as you want. You can also work on the way your character moves.
Reallusion made a lot of video tutorial which are available to learn how to use the number of parameters offered by this software. You can see an example of what it is possible to do with 3D Character Creator in the video below:
Mixamo
Mixamo is a very simple software to use. It is a good program if your a just beginning with 3D character design. It requires no previous experience in 3D animation and you can create animated figures in no time. This is not a professional tool, you will not be able to make very detailed 3D characters and good renderings with this program. But it is still very useful if you don’t want to use a complex software.
Autodesk Character Generator
Autodesk developed a web-based software for character design. It is a web-based program, allowing you to get rigged models, especially for animation and video games. 3D characters can be totally created, customized and downloaded with Character Generator. It is easy to use, you don’t have to be an experienced user to make the most of this software, but it can also be used for a professional purpose as the quality of the 3D models can be really good. You will be able to create a 3D figure quite quickly with this 3D software.
Other modeling software that can be used for chara design
Some traditional modeling software is allowing to create impressive 3D characters. Indeed, the accuracy of these software tools and their efficiency are perfect to work on 3D character designs.
Maya
Maya is a 3D modeling software developed by Autodesk. This is an efficient tool, that will help artists in their daily work. This software is not dedicated to 3D character design, but it is known to be used to work on animation for movies and video games. Indeed, the renderings and environments that you can make with this software are quite impressive. Maya has a great toolset that will allow you to create figure drawings and models. It is possible to work on the clothes movements and the hair, in order to make your 3D character as realistic as possible.
Here’s an example of character modeling with Maya:
Best Free 3d Character Modeling Software
Check this blogpost to learn how to export a Maya format file in an .obj file format. It could be useful for you, especially if you are planning to 3D print your 3D model.
ZBrush
ZBrush is a software developed by Pixologic. It is an amazing and efficient program to work on modeling, painting and texturing. It is addressed to professional designers and experienced users, as it has a lot of advanced software tools. ZBrush will allow you to work on character designs, and much more. You will be able to make digital illustrations and digital painting.
Pixologic recently published an interesting podcast with Léandre Lagrange, a concept artist working on the visual effects of movies such as Alien: Covenant, or Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales. In this podcast, Léandre Lagrange talks about the work process on a movie when it comes to creature designs and textures, and more specifically, he talks about his work with ZBrush:
At Sculpteo, we recently made a partnership with ZBrush. A new option is allowing users to export directly their file to our online 3D printing service. More information here!
Blender
Blender is a free and open source 3D software. This program is used for game creation, so you can totally create 3D figures with it. This 3D software is powerful and will allow you to create nice 3D character designs. You can use it to make realistic characters for animations or game projects. A lot of tutorials are available on their website if you need a little help to get started with this 3D design software. You will surely find good beginner guides in order to work on your character’s anatomy and expressions for example.
If you are interested in this software, we have a tutorial to help you to use Blender for 3D printing.
Source:https://cgcookie.com/course/modeling-realistic-characters-with-blender
3ds Max
3ds Max is a software developed by Autodesk, mainly used by professionals to create worlds and environments in video games. It is a really powerful 3D tool for graphic design visualization and renderings. This software has advanced features allowing you to make impressive 3D designs from scratch for your characters.
3d Character Modeling software, free download
See how to create a rigging character in 3ds Max in the following video:
You can also check our tutorial to create a 3D model with 3DS Max.
What Is The Best Software For 3d Character Modeling
As you can see, there are a lot of different programs to work on 3D character designs, and you don’t have to necessarily use a modeling software dedicated to the creation of 3D characters. There are a lot of 3D modeling software tools on the market, but we hope that this top of the best software for 3D character design jobs will help you to choose the program that will fit your needs and projects.
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3d Figure Modeling Software
Credit for the main picture: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/NGwX1