Need to know what methods you have toewards finding free 3d modelling, rendering, etc. programs. I'm putting together an article on CG art for cheap bastards, and there's a HUGE lack of free or cheap Macintosh CG art proggys out there... If you know of any, would you please IM me with the URL's? I'll be researching here as well, but I want to cast a big ol' net in my research. Thx in advance, /P

I dont have the urls handy but free Mac modelers lets see, off the top of my head. Amorphium, Pixels 3D, strata 3D, Amapi 3D. All comercial programs that have a free version for the Mac. I know there are others as well just cant think of them at the moment. RonGC

Until recently I would have mentioned Blender, but the developer picked up its marbles and went home, and any version of the program (Windows, Linux, or Mac) is difficult to track down now.

Hi... just go to the MacAddict site. The disk which comes with the magazine (worth the price of the subscription) almost always has either demoware or freeware to a nice handful of graphics programs (as well as oodles of programs in many other categories). The content is always varied (January was a games issue), but over a year's time you can get a LOT of stuff for free... as well as the magazine with all its how-tos, reviews etc.. The subscription is about $30. Their sister mag is MaximumPC (laid out and published on Macs!). People who take computers apart for fun are probably familiar with it. (I especially enjoyed the article on building your own computer in 10 easy steps... this room has almost as many cannibalized carcasses as complete working computers.) Anyway, both magazines offer information on how to get the best out of your system, written for folks who aren't afraid to open up the box and poke around the innards... and they tell you when to be extre careful. MacAddict is irreverant and somewhat young in tone (I prefer more formal magazines), but this may be to relax people. Carolly

Blender2.2 for Mac OSX is on the Didgit magazine issue 45 Cd. Thanks for reminding me i have to install ths and try it out :-) RonGC

Pixels 3.7 was just released for free, as was Canvas 6.0. These are both pretty serious programs, and it makes me wonder if Adobe will ever get a clue and follow suit with older versions of Illustrator and Photoshop. As noted, Amorphium, Strata, and Amapi (as well as Bryce, come to think of it) have also all been released for free, and they're all excellent. I've also found Strata VideoShop (without which I would be completely lost).

Attached Link: http://mac.povray.org/

Attached Link: http://www.povray.org/preview/irtc-cd3/

And don't forget that you can download the "personal learning" versions of Maya and Cinema4DL by clicking some links. We Mac users also get some nifty editing tools for special effects and such. Movie quality. Free. AlamDV is on this month's disk. :)

What month's disk are you talking about? AlamDV? Please, more info. Thanks, Cris

MacAddict. March 2002. (The one with the cute little iMac on the cover.) I didn't get The Disk in my copy (so will have to call them), but there are 46 applications on it, including a demo version of AlamDV from CSB Digital. The readme tells a person how to get the free registration code. This offer might be only for MacAddict readers (that is impled from the wording). This is special effects software (for glows and lasers and weird lighting and such - check out the staff video, which ought to be on the mag's website), so you'd still need a DV camera and editing software. The newest Macs can burn DVDs and I think they have the basics, but someone making his own movie with an eye on Sundance might want other editors. I'd have to get my hands on the application before I could tell you if the flames and such would work with animated characters as well as live actors. Hmmm... the notes here say that it is easy to use. I better make that phone call! Carolly

Here are a few links for free or cheap Macintosh 3D software.

Meshwork is a polygonal modeller aimed at small poly count models for games. It is a $30 shareware program.
http://codenautics.com/meshwork/index.html

Renderboy is a combined modeller and renderer. It is a $39 shareware program.
http://www.render-boy.com/

Celtic Assistant is a specialized program for generating Celtic-style knots. It can export a DXF of the final model. Celtic Assistant is free.
http://www.gigagraphica.com/ca/cainfo.html

Design Workshop Lite is a free version of Design Workshop, a modeller aimed at architectural illustration.
http://www.artifice.com/free/dw_lite.html

Patchdance is a 3D modeller using spline based patches. It is shareware, costing $25 for a basic version, or $75 for a more full featured option.
http://www.patchdance.com/

I second the recommendation above for POV-Ray. Though difficult to use, it produces fantastic output and is completely free. POV-Ray got me started in 3D.
http://www.povray.org/

I believe Pixels 3D 3.7 is released as freeware (the current commercial version of Pixels3D is 4.0).
http://www.pixels.net/home/index.html

Cris, Oops! Just noticed that it is April... already. Sigh.

AlamDv will work with video, animated or still pictures. You import the media into AlamDv and it the render/composites the effect onto the still/video/animation. Then save the finished product back out. Very cool effects can be had and the Alam website has further free effects for download as well. There is a huge community of users who are developing new effects all the time as well as creating some cool videos. Check some of them out :-) Ron Cartier