Interactive Product Presentations: Examples, Tools & How to Create One
![12 Best Software for 3D Animation You Should Know [Free & Paid]](https://visme.co/blog/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/12-Best-Software-for-3D-Animation-You-Should-Know-Header-scaled.jpg)
Marketing your brand with animations is a great way to grab your audience's attention, boost their emotional appeal and increase engagement.
Whether you're creating a presentation, an employee training material or marketing your products, 3D animations make your message memorable in the minds of your audience.
However, finding the best 3D animation software to bring your ideas to life can be daunting, especially for beginners. With so many available options, it's easy to get overwhelmed and confused about which software to choose.
In this article, we will explore the best 3D animation software for every designer, professional or hobbyist. We'll cover various animation software options and highlight their features, pros and cons, to help you decide on the best software for your 3D animations.
*Disclaimer:The comparisons and competitor ratings presented in this article are based on features available as of April 14th, 2023. We conduct thorough research and draw on both first-hand experience and reputable sources to provide reliable insights. However, as tools and technologies evolve, we recommend readers verify details and consider additional research to ensure the information meets their specific needs.
Visme is an intuitive cloud-based design tool that empowers teams to create visual assets, including data visualizations, animations, infographics and presentations, videos and more. With its extensive in-built animation and interactivity feature, you can enhance any visual content with dynamic, eye-catching animated designs. Be it animated presentations, infographics, banners, charts, graphs, graphics, newsletters and more.
Visme's animation tools are classy and very intuitive. Create a more engaging experience by animating your design elements to make them pop off the page. You'll find hundreds of animated presentation templates in many different styles and content types.
Let's take a look at the exciting animation features inside Visme.
Visme's animation software has over 450 3D animation graphics. Not only are our 3D graphics incredibly versatile, but we guarantee they'll wow your audience and take your project to the next level.
Here are some ideas for using these 3D animation graphics:
Imagine being able to showcase your ideas with the most realistic visuals possible. You can also use characters, illustrations, gestures, special effects, cartoon avatars, and more to spice up your visual content and engage your audience’s attention.
Beyond our mind-blowing 3D graphics, Visme has a rich library of visually appealing 2D animations. Whether you're looking to showcase a new product, promote your brand, or add extra visual interest to your website or social media channels, our 2D animations are the perfect way to make a lasting impression.
Slides in a presentation can be animated to provide a more interesting transition between slides. The "slide transitions" option can be accessed by clicking the gear icon on any given slide.
You can choose when your slides should advance based on time. Here are some options:
These are some other slide transition options on Visme:
You can decide when specific slides or information are displayed in the slideshow by using the On Click animation function.
It allows you to create animated enter and exit effects to your design elements to create a more dynamic piece of content.
You can set the timing for the animation and choose from various styles, such as:
The animation timeline feature can also be used to customize scenes and sync audio.
Add some interactivity to your presentation to give your audience a more engaging experience:
Connect with third-party integrations like Typeform, GIPHY, Loom, Google Maps and more to create personalized content.
Visme lets its customers create branded presentation templates that can be easily applied to new projects, guaranteeing a uniform and polished look across all documents and media.
Visme's Brand Kit gives you a streamlined system for managing and distributing brand assets, including logos, color palettes, and typefaces. To save time and effort, simply inputting your website's URL and automatically import your brand's elements using the Brand Wizard tool.
Share your interactive content with your audience by embedding it on a web page, sharing an online link. You can share and publish projects directly from within the Visme editor. You can also download your designs in offline animated formats, including GIF, MP4 video and HTML5.
Hear what Anne McCarthy, the Senior Director of Learning Experience at EmployBridge said about her teams' experience with Visme.
“It’s easy to create something in Visme quickly that looks like we sent it out to an advertising firm to design.”
“My whole team has been using Visme for several years, but now seeing the kind of work we’re producing, our marketing team wanted to start using Visme.”
“If it’s something we need to turn around really quickly, we’re jumping into Visme. We either put together a one-page piece that’s easy to absorb, or we’ve started creating little animated pieces.
We’ve set up branding templates for our EmployBridge brand, and we have specialty brands throughout the organization. So we’ve set up all of those brands and fonts, and it’s just made it so much easier.”
There are four unique pricing plans offered by Visme to meet your specific demands as a designer.
With the free accounts, you have the basic tools necessary to get started with video creation. For $15 per month, you can upgrade to the Standard plan and gain access to quality video templates and assets.
The Business plan is priced at $29 per month and includes limitless projects and a Brand Kit. Enterprise plans are custom upon request.
A variety of design and customizability options can lead to a slightly steep learning curve.
Maya by Autodesk is a great 3D animation software that is used in the creation of detailed characters, the application of various Hollywood standard effects and the building of realistic and immersive virtual worlds.
3D modeling in Maya is done using nodes, which define and manage connections between characters and keystrokes, allowing for advanced adjustments.
Maya offers a 30-day free trial access to new users, after which it would cost $235 monthly or $1,875 yearly
The subscription cost is relatively expensive.
Blender is an open-source animation software used for motion graphics, motion capturing and keystroke animation. It has a sophisticated rendering engine that produces stunning, ultra-realistic effects.
Blender's comprehensive modeling features make it simple to generate, alter, sculpt and edit your models as you please.
Blender is open-source and free to use.
Simplify content creation
and brand management for your team
Though it is called Cinema 4D, this software is a 3D animation software like every other software on this list application. It is developed by a company called Maxon Computer and offers an array of tools to help designers recreate a great-quality representation of whatever image they hold in their imagination.
This 3D animation software's real-time viewport, powered by OpenGL, allows users to manipulate and control the depth of field and screen space reflections.
Cinema 4D's standalone subscription costs £61 monthly or $736 yearly, while the full package including all of Maxon products costs £112 monthly or $1,352 yearly.
It is costly to acquire and use, especially if the designer is looking to go full the full package.
Unity provides a fluid integrated game development engine for creating immersive and interactive games.
It is one of the most popular gaming engines and was used to develop popular mobile games like ‘Subway Surfers,’ ‘Among Us’ and ‘Call of Duty: Mobile’ and even console games like ‘Apex Legends’ and ‘Valorant.’
Unity has four Pricing tiers. The Free tier, Unity Personal, gets you started with learning to use Unity and gives you access to the latest version of the core Unity development Unity.
Unity Plus which costs $40 monthly/$399 yearly gives access to functionality and resources, while Unity pro coming in at $185 monthly/$2040 yearly, gives the ability to publish to multiple platforms and gives the user priority customer service. Unity Enterprise is a custom price plan tailored to large enterprises.
Clip Studio Paint is largely a 2D drawing and animation program, but it also has some rudimentary 3D modeling and rendering capabilities. These capabilities include the ability to import 3D models, modify them in 3D space and render them from various camera perspectives.
Clip Studio Paint is a versatile and user-friendly software with a wide range of tools and animation features, making it popular among traditional and digital animators and designers.
Clip Studio Paint offers a free 3-month free trial version. However, it can be bought with a one-time payment of $49.99 for the Pro package.
The Clip Studio Paint EX package, which consists of all of the Pro capabilities as well as advanced comic, webtoon and animation tools, can be purchased at a one-time fee of $219.
It also offers a monthly subscription plan of $4.99 that can be used on mobile devices (phones and tablets).
Clara.io is a web application used for 3D animation. Its rendering capability is provided by V-Ray, a reputable engine in the craft employed by many sophisticated 3D software applications. It is often used for the pre-visualization of feature films.
While it lacks some of the sophisticated functions and effects of more dedicated 3D animation software, Clara.io is a versatile and affordable tool that can be used for a myriad of modeling and animation projects.
Clara.io is free to use. But it offers more cloud storage space, increased private scenes and increased rendering hours per month for a monthly cost of $10 and $100 for the Standard and Advanced package respectively.
They also offer custom pricing for commercial usage.
Motion Builder is another product from Autodesk's line of 3D programs like Maya, previously covered above. It is a great tool for motion capture projects and it also works well for regular keyframe animation and virtual production.
Through a combination of the real-time architecture, animation layers and multimedia non-linear editing functionality, Autodesk MotionBuilder software streamlines the process of animating 3D characters.
Autodesk's Motion Builder costs $2,145 per year
Cons
K-3D is a powerful open-source 3D modeling and animation tool designed to provide users with a seamless and flexible workflow for creating stunning animations. It offers advanced animation tools like keyframe animation and algorithmic animation that allow users to create intricate animations with ease.
With a user-friendly interface, cross-platform compatibility and powerful features, K-3D is an excellent choice for artists and animators looking for versatile and customizable animation software.
K-3D is entirely free to use.
iClone is a real-time 3D animation software that helps users easily produce professional animations for films, previsualization, video games, animation, content development and art.
The latest version, iClone 7 streamlines the complex world of 3D animation into a streamlined production environment that seamlessly combines character animation, scene design, and cinematic storytelling.
iClone 8 can be purchased for $599
There is limited flexibility when it comes to customizing animation as the user is constrained to the pre-built templates.
Cascadeur is a relatively new 3D animating software developed by popular game publisher Nekki that offers a unique approach to character animation.
Unlike traditional keyframe animation, Cascadeur uses a physics-based simulation system to generate realistic and natural-looking motions for characters and objects.
This innovative software allows animators to set up physical rules and constraints to govern the movement of the character or object and then generate fluid, dynamic movement based on these inputs. Overall, Cascadeur provides animators with a powerful toolset for creating lifelike and engaging character animations.
It is free to use except for designers and enterprises that require priority customer support and additional benefits. The Pro and Business plan cost $300/year and $1000/year, respectively. They also offer a custom Enterprise plan for companies looking for more control and support.
Akeytsu is one of the best 3D animation software with a unique intuitive circular widget that allows users to manipulate characters and objects in real-time.
The tool is compatible with popular gaming engines such as Unity and Unreal Engine, making it a compelling choice for game developers and other designers looking to create high-quality 3D animations for interactive media.
Akeytsu has been free for everyone since it was sold to a video game school out of Lyon, France.
There are fewer resources and tutorials online to help beginners because of its limited user base.
If you're looking for a comprehensive solution for your animation needs, we highly recommend trying Visme.
With Visme, teams of all sizes can access an intuitive, beginner-friendly platform that offers a wide range of features and templates to help them create professional-quality animations for various purposes, including marketing, sales, and product development and more.
Beyond making simple animation and videos with Visme's video maker, the tool offers so much more. You can produce an almost infinite variety of visual content within record time. That's why, in our humble opinion, it's the best option you have here.
Sign up today and start bringing your imagination to life with Visme.
Design visual brand experiences for your business whether you are a seasoned designer or a total novice.
Try Visme for free
