Freeware 3d Graphics Software: Pov-Ray, Anim8or, Radiance, Terragen, Truespace, Kerkythea, Indigo Renderer, Mechanisto, Gelato

Freeware 3d Graphics Software: Pov-Ray, Anim8or, Radiance, Terragen, Truespace, Kerkythea, Indigo Renderer, Mechanisto, Gelato

Purchase includes free access to book updates online and a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Chapters: Pov-Ray, Anim8or, Radiance, Terragen, Truespace, Kerkythea, Indigo Renderer, Mechanisto, Gelato, Metasequoia. Excerpt: Anim8or screenshot Anim8or is a freeware OpenGL based 3D modeling and animation program by R. Steven Glanville, a software engineer at NVidia . Currently at version 0.97, it is a compact program with several tools which would normally be expected in high-end, paid software. To date, every version released has been under 2 MB, despite the fact that it does not make full use of the windows native interface, carrying some graphical elements of its own. Although few official tutorials have been posted by the author, many other users have posted their own on sites such as YouTube and the anim8or home page. Anim8or is comparable to other freeware 3D animation software such as Blender , although Blender is generally considered more powerful, due to its more extensive features list. Development On July 20, 1999, a message was posted to the newsgroup comp.graphics.packages.3dstudio, introducing the first version of Anim8or to the public. In its first week, the original version was downloaded almost 100 times. The next version, 0.2, was released on September 6, 1999, containing bug fixes and the ability to save images as JPEG files. In the past few years, newer versions have been released, introducing features such as undo and redo commands, keyboard shortcuts , an improved renderer and morph targets . With each new version, the popularity of Anim8or has grown. It has been featured in several magazines including 3D User, Freelog, c't and the Lockergnome newsletter. Anim8or's latest stable version, 0.95, was released to the public on November 4, 2006, although beta versions were available earlier for users wanting to test them and provide feedback.