The Persistence of Vision Ray Tracer, most commonly acronymed as POV-Ray, is a cross-platform ray-tracing program that generates images from a text-based scene description. It was originally based on DKBTrace, written by David Kirk Buck and Aaron A. Collins for Amiga computers. There are also influences from the earlier Polyray raytracer because of contributions from its author, Alexander Enzmann. POV-Ray is free and open-source software, with the source code available under the AGPL-3.0-or-later license.
Autodesk 3ds Max, formerly 3D Studio and 3D Studio Max, is a professional 3D computer graphics program for making 3D animations, models, games and images. It is developed and produced by Autodesk Media and Entertainment. It has modeling capabilities and a flexible plugin architecture and must be used on the Microsoft Windows platform. It is frequently used by video game developers, many TV commercial studios, and architectural visualization studios. It is also used for movie effects and movie pre-visualization. 3ds Max features shaders, dynamic simulation, particle systems, radiosity, normal map creation and rendering, global illumination, a customizable user interface, and its own scripting language.
Poser is a figure posing and rendering 3D computer graphics program distributed by Bondware. Poser is optimized for the 3D modeling of human figures. By enabling beginners to produce basic animations and digital images, along with the extensive availability of third-party digital 3D models, it has attained much popularity.
LightWave 3D is a 3D computer graphics program developed by LightWave Digital. It has been used in films, television, motion graphics, digital matte painting, visual effects, video game development, product design, architectural visualizations, virtual production, music videos, pre-visualizations and advertising.
Kai Krause is a German software and graphical user interface designer, best known for founding MetaCreations Corp., for his Kai's Power Tools series of products, and for his contributions to graphical user interface design.
Infini-D is a discontinued 3D computer graphics program developed by Specular International. It was continued up to version 4.5 by MetaCreations when Specular merged with it. It combined with Ray Dream Studio to create Carrara. Soon after, Metacreations divested itself of all products other than MetaStream, including selling Carrara to Eovia. It was sold to the current developer, DAZ, upon Eovia's breaking up.
Bryce, also often referred to colloquially as Bryce3D, is a 3D modeling, rendering and animation program specializing in fractal landscapes. The name is taken from Bryce Canyon—a rugged region with many of the same landscapes that were first simulated with the software.
Autodesk Softimage, or simply Softimage was a 3D computer graphics application, for producing 3D computer graphics, 3D modeling, and computer animation. Now owned by Autodesk and formerly titled Softimage|XSI, the software has been predominantly used in the film, video game, and advertising industries for creating computer generated characters, objects, and environments.
Daz Studio is a free media design software developed by Daz 3D. Daz Studio is a 3D scene creation and rendering application that can be used to produce images as well as videos. Renders can be done by leveraging either the 3Delight render engine, or the Iray render engine, both of which can be included for free with Daz Studio, or with a variety of purchasable add-on render engine plugins for Daz Studio from various vendors and companies.
Creature House Expression was an award-winning vector graphics editor developed by Creature House in Hong Kong, founded by Alex S.C. Hsu and Irene H. H. Lee. It was initially marketed through a developer/publisher agreement with Ray Dream Inc. subsequently Fractal Design Corporation and later MetaCreations under the trade name Fractal Design Expression. The software was positioned as a companion to then-Fractal Design/MetaCreations Painter. Creature House regained full marketing rights from MetaCreations Corp. in late 2000 and published version 2 of the software under its own name as Creature House Expression. The latest version of Creature House Expression published by Creature House Ltd is version 3.3.
The Eovia Corporation was founded in November 2000, with offices in both the US and France. The company's 3D computer graphics software products were aimed towards professional and amateur artists, with a focus on remaining accessible in price and usability.
MetaCreations was a computer software company that was best known for its graphics applications, notably Ray Dream Studio/Infini D, Fractal Design Painter, Bryce, and Kai's Power Tools.
Daz Productions, Inc. is a 3D-content and software company specializing in providing rigged 3D human models, associated accessory content, and software to the hobbyist as well as the prosumer market.
Hexagon is a subdivision-type 3D modeler owned by Daz 3D. It was originally developed and published by Eovia and was acquired shortly before the release of version 2.0 by Daz 3D in 2006. The software drew heavily on Eovia's other modeler, Amapi, though it omitted the NURBs and precision measuring tools. The focus is subdivision modeling, but it includes spline tools and surface tools. Because of the two omissions, it is not as well suited to product design as Amapi, but is aimed more at illustrative and character modeling, with an eye to making it accessible for those new to working in 3D.
Web3D, also called 3D Web, is a group of technologies to display and navigate websites using 3D computer graphics.
Ray Dream Studio was a low-end 3D modeling software application. Initially developed by Ray Dream, Inc. in 1989-1991 for the Macintosh, it was acquired and upgraded over the course of mergers with Fractal Design and MetaCreations. Ray Dream was less expensive than most other offerings, renowned for its ease of use, and boasted an impressive feature set including a sophisticated shader editor. Other software programs from the same developers, such as Fractal Design Painter 3D, were often introduced in basic form to the suite. A moderately limited version lacking animation capability was sold for $99 as Ray Dream Designer, and quickly became a mass-market favorite.
Shade 3D is a 3D modeling, rendering, animation, 3D printing computer program developed by e frontier Japan and published by Mirye Software. In October 2013, Shade 3D development team formed a new company called Shade3D Co.,Ltd., and continue to develop and market the program. After terminating the sales agreement with e frontier Japan and Mirye Software by the end of December 2014, Shade3D company is now developing and marketing Shade 3D products in Japan and worldwide exclusively.
Maxwell Render is an unbiased 3D render engine, developed by Next Limit Technologies in Madrid, Spain. This stand-alone software is used in the film, animation, and VFX industry, as well as in architectural and product design visualization. It offers various plug-ins for 3D/CAD and post production applications.
iClone is a real-time 3D animation and rendering software program. Real-time playback is enabled by using a 3D videogame engine for instant on-screen rendering.
