Top 10 Animation/VFX Tools of the Year

Tuesday, December 23, 2008
By: Ramin Zahed

We left it up to our readers to pick their favorite animation and vfx tools/software packages of the year. Here are the terrific 10 items that earned the most votes, in alphabetical order:

3ds Max (3D Studio Max) ’09. Employed in many of the top Hollywood film productions, videogames and TV commercials, but also priced for the home studio, this full-featured 3D modeling, animation, rendering and effects solution has everything you need to create high-quality content. The latest version, 3ds Max 9, offers new rendering capabilities, improved interoperability with industry-standard products including Revit software, lighting simulation and analysis technology, and additional time-saving animation and mapping workflow tools. The software now comes in two distinct flavors to better meet the specific needs of entertainment and visualization customers. In addition, greater OBJ translation fidelity and more import/export options allow for more accurate data transfers between 3ds Max and digital modeling packages, including the new Autodesk Mudbox software. Suggested retail price is $3,495, with upgrades from 3ds Max 2008 going for approximately $895.

Adobe Creative Suite 4 Master Collection. Adobe has crammed a bunch of its popular software applications into this little box. This comprehensive, cross-media creative environment offers users a wide variety of options for designing print, interactive, web, film, video and mobile content. Integrating new versions of widely used Adobe software, the suite allows artists to design freely with images, vectors, video and sound, moving easily from page to screen. The Master Collection combines Adobe InDesign CS4, Photoshop CS4 Extended, Illustrator CS4, Acrobat 9 Pro, Flash CS4 Professional, Dreamweaver CS4, Fireworks CS4, Contribute CS4, After Effects CS4, Premiere Pro CS4, Soundbooth CS4, OnLocation CS4 and Encore CS4 with additional tools and services. You get all that for $2,499, or upgrade for $899.

Blender. Developed as an in-house application by Dutch animation studio NeoGeo and Not a Number Technologies (NaN), Blender is a free, open-source 3D content creation suite available for all major operating systems under the GNU General Public License. It may not have all the same bells and whistles of leading packages such as Max and Maya, but this software is a great value considering what it costs—nothing. Students, independents, hobbyists and even professionals can take advantage of Blender’s tools for modeling, rigging, animation, rendering, UV unwrapping, shading, physics and particles, imaging and compositing, and realtime 3D/game creation. Blender can be downloaded from www.blender.org, where visitors will find educational materials and support, as well as an online community of users.

DigiCel FlipBook. Many of our readers wrote in to tell us how easy it is to create 2D animation and line tests with this classic number. FlipBook allows animators to draw right on the computer using their mouse or tablets, or draw on paper, then shoot the rough sketches under a camera for speed, then scan the cleaned up drawings for quality. You can also paint the drawings quickly and add pans and zooms and then export the movies on the web. You can download the entry-level program for $79, the midrange version for $299 and the high-end professional program (1,500 frames and 99 foreground layers) for $699. As one of the software’s fans noted, “What I like about FlipBook that you feel like it was made with the animator in mind!”

e-on’s Vue 7 xStream. This product from e-on Software offers professional CG artists a complete toolset for creating rich and realistic natural environments and integrating them into any professional production pipeline, including 3ds Max, Maya, LightWave, CINEMA 4D and XSI. Possible applications for the 3D scenery program range from architectural visualization to broadcast and film. Vue offers full interaction with native elements, including two-way mutual shadow casting, reflection, refraction and lighting. The latest release is based on a totally redesigned integration approach. Among the new features is EcoSystem Generation III, featuring new Dynamic Population Technology for creating dense ecosystems that extend beyond the horizon without concern over the number of instances. There’s also a new way of viewing scenes from a graph-based point of view, MetaNodes for grouping several nodes or links into a single node, and full compatibility with mental ray technologies such as Sun & Sky, Photometric Lights and Distributed Bucket Rendering. Special offer pricing through www.e-onsoftware.com is currently $1,235.

Luxology’s modo 302. It’s hard to believe that the first version of modo was introduced at the SIGGRAPH confab more than four years ago. Since then, the advanced polygon, subdivision surface, modeling, sculpting, 3D painting, animation and rendering package has made believers out of many in the community. This brilliant tool helps artist create realist objects quickly, while incorporating advanced features such as n-gons, 3D painting and edge weighting. The current version offers tool updates, more rendering and animation features, and a physical sky and sun model. Oh, and don’t forget that some of the artists working on this little indie movie called WALL•E used modo to deliver the goods this past summer!

Maya ’09. Once the crown jewel in Alias|Wavefront’s arsenal of digital creation tools, Maya is now a sibling of Autodesk’s 3ds Max. Maya ’09 launched just in time to celebrate the 10-year anniversary of the popular 3D modeling, animation, rendering and effects solution. Highlights of the latest release include a new Maya Assets toolset and other new tools for managing the complexity and size of scenes, a new Render Proxy feature in mental ray, additional multi-threading work and algorithmic speedups, accelerated modeling workflow and collaborative, iterative projects and pipelines. The software has a new animation layering paradigm that provides animators with increased non-destructive flexibility, as well as an updated Render Pass toolset that offers precise control over render output and optimizes integration with Autodesk Toxik procedural compositing software. The suggested retail price is $1,995 for Maya Complete 2009 (standalone) and $4,995 for Maya Unlimited 2009 (standalone). The upgrade price from Maya Complete 2008 is $899, and the upgrade from Maya Unlimited 2008 is $1,249.

Pixologic’s ZBrush 3.1. It’s not surprising that many of today’s 3D artists, game developers and CG model supervisors have embraced this leading software application. The 3.1 version offers a new Brush Palette and features such as color mask and back-face masking, as well as poseable symmetry, user-assigned hotkeys, support of square alphas, refined user interface and higher subdivision levels. This slickly integrated modeling, texturing and illustration environment also offers instant feedback and real-time response—kind of like a friendly teacher (priced at $599) you can count on when you need to deliver a challenging digital sculpting assignment!

Toon Boom Software. Our readers had a hard time picking among the Montreal-based company’s family of various products, but one thing they all agreed on was that the Emmy-winning solutions have made 2D animation much easier and user-friendly. Whether they’re aimed at home users (Toon Boom Studio), boutique shops, freelancers and educators (Toon Boom Animate or Toon Boom Digital Pro) or traditional film/TV industry studios (Toon Boom Opus and Harmony), they’ve been hugely influential in the creation of modern animation projects in the past two decades. They even have a great model for beginners—Flip Boom, which is ideal for learning the basics. Keep in mind that some of the notable 2D animated features of recent years (The Triplets of Belleville, The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie and Curious George) used Toon Boom software in their pipelines!

Wacom Cintiq 12WX. Aaaah, Wacom tablet, how do we love thee. It’s easy to admire the beautiful design, the 12.1” TFT display and the way the 4.4 pound gizmo offers the advantages of a wide-format LCD monitor with Wacom’s pro pen technology. We could mention the point accuracy, the fast cursor control and the 1,000-plus levels of pressure-sensitivity on the pen tip and eraser, but once you take a look at the 12WX, the heart takes over the mind. Most important of all, you can take this small wonder home for only a grand.

Reader Comments

• Anonymous :

  Friday, January 09, 2009

  Is 3D max priced for the home studio, sure?

• Dipingo : Founder : Blenducaton.org

  Friday, January 09, 2009

  Blender is now taught on-line, LIVE! Come and learn everything you ever wanted to know about Blender from one place with live instructors via your web browser. Ask Questions get feed back and explore the possabilities that Blender can provide.
  New classes are being added all the time.
  Visit: www (dot) Blenducation (dot) org

• Zlatko Nikolic : PC service : Technicom

  Friday, January 09, 2009

  It will be good to have integratet Blender,Inkscape and Gimp in one pro package, and have some kind of BRIDGE between like in Adobe suit.

• Anonymous :

  Friday, January 09, 2009

  The absence of Softimage|XSI 7 in this list shows no one here bothered to play with the Ice Tree. Its by far one of the biggest if not the biggest advancement in CG FX this past year.

• Jet : Animator : None

  Friday, January 09, 2009

  How come XSi and Houdini was not included? far better than Maya

• Anonymous : Compositor : Freelance

  Friday, January 09, 2009

  What about Discreet(Autodesk) Flint/Flame. Expensive, but what a life saver. Wouldn’t live without

• Nickle : Modeller : Freelance

  Friday, January 09, 2009

  Blender rocks 3rd on the list, open source and thus free.

• ton : animator : nan

  Saturday, January 10, 2009

  blender is crap it cant perform as well as the others such as 3dmax or vue

• fqnk : animator :

  Saturday, January 10, 2009

  come on!! You have not heard about XSI? The most innovating animation software for the last 5 years. This article is a joke. There has been zero innovation in 3D studio Max for years, I work with it on daily basis. I think Blender is the most interesting software on the 3D scene today and it will be the most innovate in the years to come.

• Zlatko Nikolic : PC Service :

  Saturday, January 10, 2009

  I agree with FGNK,Blender is the most interesting 3D software today, 3DS-Max is just one big colection of third-party software, Character studio,Mental ray render...

• Anonymous :

  Sunday, January 11, 2009

  When was the artcile uploaded , it was not there on the dec24 or dec23 ?

• leigh : animator : animators anonymous

  Monday, January 12, 2009

  this article is highly political. Those reviews sound biased with little mention of \"NEW\" innovations and improvements. Plus what sources were used as references and such, what is the criteria for such nominations. This sounds like a google search result for \"animation/vfx software\"

• Marcus : Animator :

  Monday, January 12, 2009

  As the readers voted, this just shows how most human beings stick to what they know or find in places they go (in this case pipelines of studios). This is of course highly effective...well but not if you miss other apps features that would save you a lot of time if you consider to learn them.
  
  Critics of this list should mind that this list ist about the readers \"favourite\" tools, not about the most innovative. But of course its a shame that XSI is missing and was acquired by a company that will probably burden it.
  
  On the other hand I\'m pleasantly surprised that Blender is on the list. Most poeple I know that used Blender and Maya said that Blender is much faster and less clumsy when it comes to SubD modeling, uv layout and rigging.
  Just watch the magic of this rigging feature in a video:
  http://vimeo.com/2032416

• Srinivas : Media Analyst : Empower

  Monday, January 12, 2009

  When did u publish this article on this site?, cause this article was not present on Friday also.
  Thank you
  Srinivaas

• HONORIN Hilaire : Freelance 3D RT : PRAX3D / AVANTILLES

  Monday, January 12, 2009

  Je ne vois dans ce classement que des logiciels qu\\\'AutoDesk ou Adobe possèdent ou projettent d\\\'acquérir.
  A part cela comme d\\\'habitude : Circuler il n\\\'y a rien à voir...
  En tant que Freelance, Un logiciel de qualité, quelque soit la plateforme est celui que vous maitrisez et qui vous permet d\\\'assurer vos prestations dans les délais prévus. Maya a beau être jugé excellent, lorsqu\\\'on connait Lightwave presque sous toutes ses coutures, à quoi me sert-il d\\\'avoir un tel classement sinon à rien?
  Il aurait peut-être fallu regarder en terme d\\\'apport technologique et non de pseudo-gadget.

• XSI professional : VFX Lead :

  Monday, January 12, 2009

  As others have said, XSI is missing from this list as is Houdini. Mudbox 2009 is also missing. The list is a sham!

• Motion Graphics Artist :

  Monday, January 12, 2009

  Sorry. Where is CINEMA 4D? It is the number one app for motion graphics, the first choice when working with Adobe\'s CS4 and the only 3D app that has had consistent and meaningful development over the last few years.

• oz : animator :

  Monday, January 12, 2009

  Yeah.. you missed XSI... especially it\'s new ICE technology.. I guess this shows how much those who wrote this, know their buisiness :)

• Fpxcel : Modeler : Lafon

  Monday, January 12, 2009

  Well done!!!!
  
  but where are the powerful and famous Lightwave and Zbrush ?????
  
  For me direct To the 4th and the 5th rank before Eon Vue and the Maya reloaded by the little AutoD.....
  lol
  well, so ::: \\\"Hypervoxel\\\" and \\\"Pixol\\\" POWER

• Tim, LA : AD : ...

  Monday, January 12, 2009

  I think facile comparisions of CG-Packages are useless for everybody! I know \"Animation Magazine\" as a very cursory one!
  Be honest: If you would compare features and workflow in Maya with it in Blender, you would see that Maya is still lightyears away!
  Every-CG-body has his favorite. There could be several causes about that.
  But I think the main cause is the result and the options!
  I distinguish tools for hobbyists and amateurs (Blender) and professional tools for CGFX and movies (f.e. Maya).
  That\'s the world we still live in!
  And here is one more hint for you folks:
  The applications are sorted alphabetically and not in a ranking !!!

• Tom : Artist : Raffles

  Monday, January 12, 2009

  It would be more interesting to see an equivalence write up, such as ZBrush-Mudbox-3DCoat-LBrush can do similar things. What separates them? What are the free or cheap variants to the very expensive tools? Which combinations of software, like Autodesk products, provide a nice pipeline?

• Paul : Animator : Blue Ice

  Tuesday, January 13, 2009

  Maya is way better than Max it shouldn\'t be under it.

• Andy :

  Tuesday, January 13, 2009

  Did any of you guys bitching about XSI/my favourite tool even read the article? From the first paragraph:
  \"We left it up to our readers to pick their favorite animation and vfx tools/software packages of the year. \"
  
  Can\'t blame the other packages for having a more enthusiastic user-base!

• Link Starbureiy : Mathematician : Egglepple

  Tuesday, January 13, 2009

  I own and like gmax/3D Max (7), but won\'t bother upgrading it since because it\'s a memory hog and I can get all of my animating done with Blender. I am, however, surprised that Microsoft\'s Expression Suite didn\'t crack this list. It is - without a doubt(!) - the sickest piece of software out there for graphical web development (which is where all of this is heading).

• grootvriend : game artist :

  Wednesday, January 14, 2009

  People learn to read. Not only is it a list by vote but it\'s also in alphabetical order. Besides that, it\'s also pethatic how everybody is whining that their favorite app is not in the list. Come on who cares. If you like to work with it then do so.
  As for the people that feares that XSI is doomed now that Autodesk bought it; it sucks that one company is getting so big a part of the market but don\'t fear that your app will be put to ruin. When they bought Maya, the app finnaly got some improvement under the hood instead of adding new stuff to it first.

• fqnk : animator :

  Wednesday, January 14, 2009

  \"Did any of you guys bitching about XSI/my favourite tool even read the article? From the first paragraph:
  \\\"We left it up to our readers to pick their favorite animation and vfx tools/software packages of the year. \\\"
  
  Can\\\'t blame the other packages for having a more enthusiastic user-base!\"
  
  Ore 90% of the user base!
  
  The headline should be then, The most user based software in 2008! not, Top 10 Animation/VFX Tools of the Year.
  
  What was the best OS in 2008? Vista?

• fdspo :

  Wednesday, January 14, 2009

  You missed too important ones that rocked in 2008:
  
  Crazybump ( www.crazybump.com )
  xNormal ( www.xnormal.net )

• Hashpro : Modeler : Creative

  Thursday, January 15, 2009

  Much more prefer Lightwave, ZBrush & Blender.

• Anonymous :

  Friday, January 16, 2009

  Vue 7 may be great it but it WILL NOT RUN ON MAC (even though it has a Mac version)!!! It also crashes constantly on everything else. Just read the forums. What a piece of crap. How much did they pay to get on this list?

• James McD : 3D Animator : Blueberry Sights

  Friday, January 16, 2009

  Cinema 4D is my pick by far, I have tried all of the above as well as the APPS that were not mentioned and for pure power, user friendliness and steady work-flow I found C4D to be amazing and well worth the money!

• vue-blog.de : service pack 2 : vue-blog.de

  Friday, January 16, 2009

  @anonymous: please download the service pack 2 from the e-on homepage and it will be running with mac os.
  
  yesterday they released the new service pack 2 for vue 7.

• Anonymous :

  Sunday, January 18, 2009

  Anything is better to build models than Max. And Blender is easily the most intuitive as ZBrush and innovative out there.

• smarak : character animation : nothing

  Tuesday, January 20, 2009

  sorry

• Vu Van Vinh : Design AD : At Home

  Friday, January 23, 2009

  It is fantatic

• armando : programmer : agmlabs.com

  Sunday, January 25, 2009

  I work with both Maya and Blender, simple as it sounds Blender has great modeling and animation tools. results are PRO. Everyday I work less with Maya. I recommend learning Blender and you will see for yourself. Plus it is free and you do not have to pay ridiculous $ 1200 every year for upgrades + you can use multiple computers.

• gtoddv :

  Wednesday, January 28, 2009

  Evidently many users of CG tools can\'t read. The magazine didn\'t pick these packages, the readers voted on their favorites or perhaps what the use the most (which very easily could be different).
  
  If something wasn\'t on the list you need to blame the company that produces the software/tool. If the product deserves to be in the top ten but isn\'t, clearly the company needs to do a better job at marketing and sales.

• abdul : shavara@in.com : shavara

  Thursday, January 29, 2009

  software dowunlod

• Panda : Animation Artist : UMM

  Thursday, February 12, 2009

  Fuck .... ter is no MAXON CINEMA 4D & Bodypaint 3d in this list.

• nit :

  Friday, February 27, 2009

  which 3d app is better between 3ds max09 and maya09

• nit :

  Friday, February 27, 2009

  coz m havin both max n maya in my module n m intrested in modelling, rigg n animation bt have a confussion regarding these 2 softwares. help me out yall...??//

• vikram : character animator :

  Saturday, May 16, 2009

  Its nice but i want more abt animation software details....

• DJ duncan : Dj : Dj duncan and co.

  Sunday, July 05, 2009

  i think blender (version 2.49 which is the latest) is the best.........wait........what am i thinking......... although i like it a lot but not like 3ds max (oh man how i am crazy about that thing).........and just because i got blender and not ...................3d.........3ds...........max doesnt mean i should hate it (im talkin about the blenser thing)

• dinesh juneja : vfx artist : dq entertainment

  Monday, September 07, 2009

  xsi and houdini is missing thats not good because now xsi is very powerful with autodesk....try them.....

• santa : none : none

  Thursday, September 17, 2009

  Why Does cinema4d on the list?
  
  STUPID

• santa : none : none

  Thursday, September 17, 2009

  Why Do not cinema4d to the list?
  
  STUPID

• ACF : 3D Media Developer : Anonymous

  Monday, October 26, 2009

  Blender definitely edging the competition out eventually. Best algorithms for dynamics, etc. If you know how to really do 3D (Not just use wizards and push buttons), then blender is THE tool...
  Quickly rising to the top. Better learn now...

• xxxx : yyyy : zzzzz

  Wednesday, November 04, 2009

  cinema 4d

• Prabhakar : Motion Graphic Designer : Arena

  Thursday, December 03, 2009

  fuck there is no after effects software and combustion software

• xdrone : paper pusher : not valid here

  Thursday, February 04, 2010

  I would like a recount of votes.
  Adobe keeps shoving Director under the rug. I have done wonders with that thing.
  Liked the macromedia versions better.
  Lightwave have barely been mentioned here.
  I have been Fiddling with all 3D progs and since 1996. Found my mind unleashed with lightwave 7.5 later on. Still like it better than 8 and 9, though they have had better organization.
  Truly you can\'t compare other riff raff programs with lightwave. NEVER!!! By God, Never!!!
  I have seen people stumble head over heals to get things done, that immediately are conceived by Lightwave\'s logical and Physical approach.
  
  I will race you all to the moon and back with this power program.
  I stand by my convictions.
  All Hail Lightwave, light bringer and seer of all 3D.