Best Free 3D animation for Windows and Mac?

Hey all,

Maybe this is old talk, but still, hopefully i can learn new stuffs and introduce and ask for some advices here.

I'm looking for some Easy, Free, Powerful 3D animation (include modelling) software that works for both Mac and WinXP.

So requirement is:-

1. Easy
2. Free
3. Powerful to do quality in/organic & modelling and animation
4. Win and Mac


Here is a list i know of:-

1. k-3d
Saw and thanks for someone who posted this. May take a look at this...


2. Still looking...
Did i miss something ?

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Others

Sweethome3D - GOOD!
Photo relalistic quality. Ease of use. Free.
Simple animation. But only limited to inorganic object models.


Google sketchup
Looks easier than some. But it seems more suited for simple animation of viewing for landscape and unmoving objects. Sketch quality.

Blender
Maybe everyone knows this. Learned a bit of this but may not be easy on newbie.


Maya - Not free. However, educators and student edition may be good for you.

Cinema4D - Looks impressive too but not free.

Daz3d. Downloaded the free studio, not sure which of the functionalities will be disabled after 30 days, but you may take a look on youtube. It seems to have easy facial, pose and morphing capabilities. Anyone with experience on daz3d? Thanks

Sorry guys. I read 'the' sticky and decide to update. I know this is kind of answering my own question.

List :-

1.) Houdini Apprentice (Free & powerful) (Not sure how easy though)


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Messiah & Lightwave - Not free.

k-3d - Seem to be still in development stage. Maybe next time.

I am in the same way as you, looking for a 3D animation studio, free and easy to use. I have found-
truespace - not fully used yet, feels complicated
Anim8or - Getting the hang of it with their tutorials
K-3D - Didn't work
3D Crafter - Reasonably simple, hard to find, go to w w w . a m a b i l i s . c o m for it.
DAZ Studio - way too complicated
ParticleView - Only for particles, and only useful if you have a 3D animation studio that takes particles, but otherwise very fun

Anyone else have any more?

Overall, 3D Crafter / 3D Canvas has been the best, and easiest to use.

if you are mainly interested in modelling, wings3D is "hands down" the best modeller, free or other

I would personally go with blender. Way I see it, if you're going to devote your time and energy into learning something, might as well be something good. from what I was seeing when I was testing software out, blender was similar to 3ds max in a lot of ways which is what I liked about it. Its plenty powerful and as free as it gets. There is a huge community behind it, so learning the program is a little less painful because there are plenty of people who have had the same issues... so on. I decided to go with 3ds max though.

There's also a Windows to Mac software bridge that you can use to run Windows applications on a Mac, so basically your really not limited by the operating system. Most 3D modeling sofware is written for Windows. I've had a lot fun with Caligari's Truespace 7.61 Beta 8, and it supports keyframe animation. Microsoft, has released it as free software after buying out Caligari Corporation several years back.

Blender, is also an excellent choice, and it fully supports animation too. Like Truespace both have a rather odd user interface, but with some patience either can be mastered with time.

I propose Blender too. There's no better free 3D soft than that.

I agree blender is the way to go!

Get blender. Its amazing. there are a ton of tutorials on the net

I gotta go with Blender. extremely powerful opensource suite. easy to learn with so many tutorials and sites dedicated to it these days. the new cycles render engine is looking pretty amazing aswell.