List of common 3D test models

This is a list of models and meshes commonly used in 3D computer graphics for testing and demonstrating rendering algorithms and visual effects. Their use is important for comparing results, similar to the way standard test images are used in image processing.

Modeled

Designed using CAD software; sorted by year of modeling.

Name and viewer	Render	Year of creation	Person/organisation that did the modeling	Description of source object	Model size	License	Comments
Utah teapot		1975	Martin Newell at University of Utah	Melitta teapot	28 Bézier patches (32 with the bottom) [1]		Also called the "Newell teapot". One of the first models not to be measured.
Cornell box		1984	Cindy M. Goral, Kenneth E. Torrance, Donald P. Greenberg, Bennett Battaile at Cornell University	A 2 foot square box, open on one side, two opposing interior sides each painted a contrasting color, with the rest of the box painted light gray	5 quads 1 light source		Use as a 3D test model commonly relies on familiarity with the expected results rather than rerunning the experiment against a real-life setup.
Suzanne		2002	Willem-Paul van Overbruggen for Blender	Chimpanzee head, based on an orangutan from the movie Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back	500 faces	GNU GPL 2+ (inherited from Blender as a whole)	Mascot for Blender [2]
Crytek Sponza		2010	Frank Meinl at Crytek	The colonnaded atrium of the Sponza Palace in Dubrovnik [3]	184,330 vertices 262,267 triangles [3]		Used for demonstrating global illumination techniques. [4] [5] [6] [7] The Crytek version is based on a model created by Marko Dabrović in early 2001 while he was at RNA studio, and donated to a radiosity competition held by CGTechniques.com in early 2002. [8] [9]
Spot		2012	Keenan Crane at Caltech	Cartoon cow	2,930 vertices 5,856 triangles	CC0 [10]	Catmull-Clark control mesh, quadrangulation, triangulation, vector texture, and bitmap texture. All meshes are manifold, genus-0 embeddings.
3DBenchy		2015	Creative Tools	Cartoon toy boat	112,569 vertices 225,154 triangles	CC0 [11]	Specifically designed for testing the accuracy and capabilities of 3D printers

Scanned

Includes photogrammetric methods; sorted by year of scanning.

Name and viewer	Render	Year of creation	Person/organisation responsible for the scan	Description of source object	Model size	License	Comments
Stanford bunny		1993-94 [12]	Greg Turk, Marc Levoy at Stanford University	Ceramic rabbit [13]	69,451 triangles [12]	Figurine of unknown authorship and licensing status, scan itself released under a two-clause BSD license.	A test of range scanning physical objects. Originally .ply file.
Stanford dragon		1996 [12]	Stanford University	Chinese dragon	1,132,830 triangles
Stanford Armadillo		1996 [12]	Venkat Krishnamurthy and Marc Levoy at Stanford University	Armadillo action figure	345,944 triangles	Free for scholarly writings and research, attribution required, no commercial use without prior permission [12]
Wooden Elk Toy		2000 [14]	Hans-Peter Seidel at Max-Planck-Institut für Informatik				Often used as an example of a non-trivial object with high genus.
Phlegmatic Dragon [15]	Phlegmatic Dragon	2007	Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Czech Technical University in PragueEurographics 2007 conference		667,214 faces (original) 480,076 faces (smoothed)	Sticker on the bottom says "GRUNCH © PANTON '88 MADE IN ENGLAND"	Smoothed and nonsmoothed
David [16] [17]		2009	Stanford University	Michelangelo's 5-meter statue David [16]	~1 billion polygons [18]	Only available to established scholars and for non-commercial use only. [17]	range data [17]
Fertility		2009	AIM@SHAPE Repository (scanned at Utrecht University)	Small stone statue with two joined figures.	241,607 vertices 483,226 triangles		Laser scan.
Nefertiti		2015	Nora Al-Badri and Jan Nikolai Nelles	A stoneworked bust of the Egyptian queen Nefertiti that was created in 1345 BC by Thutmose	~2 million triangles	CC By SA 4.0	Surreptitiously scanned by Nora Al-Badri and Jan Nikolai Nelles, and subsequently separately by Scan the World with permission of the Neues Museum.

Gallery

• 
  The Utah teapot (1975) has a "hole" in it so it has a genus greater than zero.
• 
  The Cornell box (1985) tests lighting and rendering.
• 
  A 3D-printed reproduction of Stanford dragon (1996) physical model, made through rapid prototyping
• 
  Suzanne (2002) with wireframe
• 
  Spot (2012) shown homeomorphic to a sphere
• 
  3DBenchy (2015), designed to test 3D printing

See also

• Standard test image  – Digital image used to test image algorithms
• A Computer Animated Hand
• Sutherland's Volkswagen  – 3D test model

References

1. "The Utah Teapot". holmes3d.net. Retrieved 2020-10-28.
2. Primitive instantiable by clicking Add → Mesh → Monkey
3. Morgan McGuire. "McGuire Computer Graphics Archive".
4. Jennifer O'Connor (1 July 2010). Mastering mental ray: Rendering Techniques for 3D and CAD Professionals . John Wiley & Sons. p.  175. ISBN   978-0470563854. The Sponza Palaze atrium scene has become a classic demonstration model for indirect illumination techniques in a wide variety of applications
5. Robert McMillan (24 September 2014). "Nvidia Proves We Walked on the Moon—Not That It Needed To". Wired . It cooked up a demo using a standard graphics simulation called the Sponza Atrium, a computer-generated stroll through a renaissance-style hallway.
6. Matt Pharr; Greg Humphreys (26 August 2010). Physically Based Rendering: From Theory to Implementation . Morgan Kaufmann. p.  493. ISBN   978-0123750792.
7. Jaroslav Krivanek; Pascal Gautron (2009). Practical Global Illumination with Irradiance Caching . Morgan & Claypool Publishers. p.  85. ISBN   978-1598296440.
8. Abecassis, Laurent (3 April 2001). "On The Web – RNA studio's GI architectural renderings". CGPress. Archived from the original on 4 June 2021. Retrieved 4 June 2021.
9. "Sponza Atrium - Hatch Studios". Hatch Studios. Archived from the original on 25 February 2021. Retrieved 4 June 2021.
10. "Keenan Crane - 3D Model Repository". www.cs.cmu.edu. Retrieved 2025-08-01.
11. "License - 3DBenchy.com". 7 April 2015. Retrieved 29 March 2022.
12. "The Stanford 3D Scanning Repository". Stanford University. 22 Dec 2010. Retrieved 17 July 2011.
13. Greg Turk (2000). "The Stanford Bunny" . Retrieved 18 July 2011.
14. Michael Goesele; Wolfgang Heidrich; Hendrik P. A. Lensch; Hans-Peter Seidel (January 2000). "Building a Photo Studio for Measurement Purposes". Computer Graphics Group, Max-Planck-Institut fur Informatik. CiteSeer^x:  10.1.1.18.3510 .
15. "EG 2007 Phlegmatic Dragon". Eurographics 2007. 12 May 2011. Retrieved 23 July 2011.
16. Levoy, Marc (August 11, 2009). "The Digital Michelangelo Project". Stanford University . Retrieved 22 September 2014.
17. Levoy, Marc (August 19, 2014). "The Digital Michelangelo Project Archive of 3D Models". Stanford University . Retrieved 22 September 2014.
18. Levoy, Marc (November 27, 1998). "The Stanford Large Statue Scanner". Stanford University . Retrieved 22 September 2014.

External links

Standard test models

• The Stanford 3D Scanning Repository hosted by the Stanford University
• Large Geometric Models Archive hosted by the Georgia Institute of Technology

Other repositories

• The Utah 3D Animation Repository, a small collection of animated 3D models
• scene collection, by Physically Based Rendering Toolkit: a number of interesting scenes to render with global illumination
• MGF Example Scenes, a small collection of some indoor 3D scenes
• archive3D, a collection of 3D models
• 3DModels, a collection of vehicle 3D models
• 3DBar, a collection of free 3D models
• NASA 3D Models, NASA 3D models to use for educational or informational purposes
• VRML Models from ORC Incorporated, 3D models in VRML format
• 3dRender.com: Lighting Challenges, regularly held lighting challenges, complete with scene and models for each challenge
• MPI Informatics Building Model, a virtual reconstruction of the Max Planck Institute for Informatics building in Saarbrücken
• Princeton shape-based 3D model search engine
• Keenan's 3D Model Repository hosted by the Carnegie Mellon University
• HeiCuBeDa Hilprecht – Heidelberg Cuneiform Benchmark Dataset for the Hilprecht Collection a collection of almost 2.000 cuneiform tablets for bulk-download acquired with a high-resolution 3D-scanner. Available under a CC BY license and quotable by digital object identifiers. Datasets cleaned using the GigaMesh Software Framework.
• HeiCu3Da Hilprecht – Heidelberg Cuneiform 3D Database - Hilprecht Collection browsable version of HeiCuBeDa allowing to download and quote single 3D models.