Looking For Good 3D Graphics Software

**markster** · 04 June 2006, 06:57 PM

Anyone know of any good free to download 3D graphics software? Also, how do I include 3D graphics into a webpage??? Do I use the

HTML Code:

<object></object>

tags???

**Egg Bramhill** · 04 June 2006, 06:59 PM

Hi Markster

How about giving Google Sketh-Up a try. It's fantastic, free & fun to use.

**Ross Macintosh** · 04 June 2006, 08:57 PM

Mark: The link for the free Google SketchUp is here: http://www.sketchup.com/

Typically if you want to show a model in a webpage you export a jpg image showing a view of your model. 3d models are not usually embedded into web pages. There are ways to do that but nothing for a beginner and most of the tools are relatively expensive. The practicality is also hampered by the reality that 3d models often have large file sizes that makes them too large to embed.

One thing you can do with Google SketchUp is upload your models to Google's 3dwarehouse. You can then provide links to your models on your webpage. If the website visitor installs the free Google SketchUp too they can download your model from 3dwarehouse.

Regards, Ross

**jamesmc** · 05 June 2006, 02:56 AM

Thar she blows!!!

**jamesmc** · 05 June 2006, 03:52 AM

Depends on what kind of 3D you want to do. Google Sketchup is a good place to start to get concepts down.

Daz Studio is free and makes 3D bipeds (humans), but they try to sell you add ons and stuff. (comes with free models)

Wings3D is a modeling program for making 3D models of any kind, but has no texture or rendering engine (you need rendering engine to finish your model so it can exist outside of the program.)

If you want to do Web Thing rotations and stuff, Xara3D is not bad. Has it's limitations, but puts out stunning work.

Blender is free and can do about everything. It has a very long learning curve though. Pretty good support and community for free 3D software though.

Anim8tor is another free 3D program. Comes with good tutorials and pretty good community of support.

If you notice the chinese midget I have in the GIF animation. It was a poser model that I morphed out and shrunk in Poser 6. I think exported the animation of it running as PNG 32 bit individual files. Then I import into a GIF animation program I have, adjust it a bit and poke the virtual 3D funny schtick at Ross MacIntosh (about Google Sketchup, heh heh.)

This animation was imported as png files then exported as a GIF, then reimported as an AVI, then re-imported as a GIF, saved as a GIF. Why? Because I'm just that type of guy who likes chicken neck bones and glass stop signs! Okay!? er..nmmm. it was a 60s thing when..er nm...

**Grafixman** · 05 June 2006, 04:06 PM

Very clever animation james. I had a bit of fun with it here:
http://talkgraphics.com/showthread.p...348#post160348
Hope you don't mind me borrowing the kid...

Getting back on topic, there are java applets for viewing 3d objects online. Here is a link I have bookmarked:
Java View
http://www.javaview.de/
I also remember a quicktime viewer for 3d rooms. Gocubic, I think. Do a Google search for it.
Then there is a plugin for 3d max which can output a vectorized version for Flash....
Lots more I can't recall right now...

**jamesmc** · 05 June 2006, 04:32 PM

Originally Posted by Grafixman

Very clever animation james. I had a bit of fun with it here:
http://talkgraphics.com/showthread.p...348#post160348
Hope you don't mind me borrowing the kid...

Getting back on topic, there are java applets for viewing 3d objects online. Here is a link I have bookmarked:
Java View
http://www.javaview.de/
I also remember a quicktime viewer for 3d rooms. Gocubic, I think. Do a Google search for it.
Then there is a plugin for 3d max which can output a vectorized version for Flash....
Lots more I can't recall right now...

heh heh, yeah I saw it and it's very cool. Good topic on adapting 2D animations. Nice adaptation of the chinese midget making the beast run.

**Josè Campoy.** · 06 June 2006, 01:51 AM

If you are looking foa a free 3d softeare

Blender is the best chioise.
you can find a lot of tutorials in the web.

**Tirade** · 07 June 2006, 07:28 PM

All good suggestions.

For me, if I had to do it all over again, I would start with Wings 3D for my modeler and Kerkythea for my renderer. Both solid programs and nice learning curve.

There's also Silo. While it's not free but at $109.00, it's pretty darn close. If you act quickly you will get version 2 for free when it's released any day now.

~Liam~