Tools, Pipeline & UtilitiesEdit

Viewers, converters, USD, plugin marketplaces, pipeline standards, and miscellaneous CG utilities.

USD (Universal Scene Description)

OpenUSD resources, specifications, and guides.

• AL USD Maya. Animal Logic's Maya plugin for round-tripping USD scene data into Maya.
• Animal Logic's USD Docker. Docker build scripts that fetch and compile Pixar USD and its open-source dependencies.
• Apple USD Tools. Usdz_converter, Reality Composer.
• Luma USD. USD plugins and schemas from Luma Pictures.
• NVIDIA USD Resources. Omniverse, tutorials, tools.
• OpenUSD. Official Pixar USD site. Specification, tools, resources.
• USD Cookbook (Colin Kennedy). Code recipes and examples.
• USD Manager. Lightweight app for browsing, managing, and editing USD files.
• USD Noodle. Node-graph viewer showing the dependencies of a USD file.
• USD Qtpy. Python Qt components for building custom USD tools.
• USD Shell Extension for Windows. Windows File Explorer extension adding USD thumbnails, side previews, and deep-metadata search.
• USD Survival Guide. Practical USD guide for VFX artists.
• USD URI Resolver. URI-based asset resolver for USD, with custom plugin support.
• USD Working Group (ASWF). Alliance for Open Media USD resources.
• UsdQt. Qt components for building custom USD tools.

Scene & Pipeline Tools

Production pipelines, render management, look dev.

Related:

• BlenderProc. A procedural Blender pipeline for photorealistic training image generation.
• CGCmake. CMake modules for CG apps.
• Cortex. Libraries for VFX software development.
• Cross3D. Scene and node management abstraction.
• Dailies. Wraps ffmpeg, Nuke, or RV to process video files and image sequences. Integrates with Shotgun, Ftrack, Kitsu.
• Easy3D. A lightweight, easy-to-use, and efficient C++ library for processing and rendering 3D data.
• Example of Python scripts for 3D Studio Max, Maya and Blender. Sample Python scripts for 3ds Max, Maya, and Blender automation.
• Field3D. Open-source library for storing voxel data.
• MayaCharm. Run and edit Maya scripts directly from PyCharm
• MayaSublime. Run and edit Maya scripts directly from SublimeText
• mGui. Portable pure-python GUI library for Maya.
• minq. Maya query language for speeding up common scene operations.
• nuke.vim. Run and edit Nuke scripts directly from vim
• OD CopyPasteExternal. Tool to easily copy/paste a geometry across 3D application like Blender <> 3DS Max <> Maya <>.. <>.
• Pipeline Developer Forum. Forum for pipeline TDs and studio tool developers.
• Prisma. Computational photography pipeline tool that performs multiple inferences (masks, depth, motionvectors) from any image or video.
• Py3dsMax. 3dsMax API in Python.
• PyMEL. Python in Maya Done Right.
• Ramses. Asset Management System for motion picture production (by Rainbox Laboratory).
• Stalker. Open Source Production Asset Management (ProdAM) Library designed specifically for Animation and VFX Studios.
• VEX. Houdini add-on for Sublime Text

Gaussian Splatting & NeRF

Neural and splatting reconstruction.

• 3D Gaussian Splatting (INRIA reference impl). Original implementation.
• 3DGS Introduction. HuggingFace introductory guide to 3D Gaussian Splatting.
• 3DGS.cpp. Cross-platform, high performance 3DGS renderer in C++ and Vulkan Compute, supporting Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, and visionOS.
• 4D Gaussian Splatting. Dynamic scenes (CVPR 2024).
• Brush. Cross-platform Gaussian Splatting reconstruction and viewer (Rust/wgpu), runs in browser.
• Gaussian Head Avatars: A Summary. Summary of Gaussian-splatting head-avatar techniques (Towards Data Science).
• LichtFeld Studio. Native desktop app for training, inspecting, editing, and exporting 3D Gaussian Splatting scenes. Plugin extensible.
• MegaSaM. Structure and motion recovery from casual handheld video.
• msplat. A modular differential gaussian rasterization library.
• Pointrix. Differentiable point-based rendering framework for Gaussian Splatting.
• PyTorch Implementation. Curated implementation of Vanilla 3DGS in PyTorch
• spaTV. WebGL Viewer for 4D Gaussians (based on SpaceTime Gaussian) with demo here.
• SpectacularAI. Conversion scripts for different 3DGS conventions.
• splatviz. Viewer that allows you to edit the rendering code during runtime or to display multiple scenes at once.
• Taichi 3D GS. Taichi-based implementation (Apache-2.0).
• vkgs. Cross-platform, high performance 3DGS renderer in C++ and Vulkan Compute/Graphics.
• Warp 3DGS. Warp/Python-based implementation (AGPL-3.0).

Photogrammetry & 3D Scanning

Photogrammetry, LiDAR, and Gaussian splat capture.

Related:

• 360 Gaussian Splatting. Generate gaussian splatting directly from 360 images
• 3D Gaussian Splatting (joeyan reimpl). Python/CUDA Gaussian Splatting reimplementation (MIT).
• 3D Gaussian Splatting (WangFeng18 reimpl). Python/CUDA Gaussian Splatting reimplementation (MIT).
• 3D in Geospatial: NeRFs, Gaussian Splatting, and Spatial Computing. Blog. Applying NeRFs and Gaussian Splatting to geospatial 3D mapping.
• 4DViews Paid. Volumetric capture stages and HOLOSYS rigs.
• Awesome-3DGS Paper List. Curated list of 3D Gaussian Splatting papers, maintained by MrNeRF.
• Book: High Dynamic Range Imaging (Reinhard et al.) Paid. Reinhard, Heidrich, Debevec, Pattanaik, Ward, Myszkowski. The reference text on HDR imaging.
• Compressing Gaussian Splats. PlayCanvas blog. Compressing Gaussian Splat data for the web.
• CyArk. Heritage site laser scanning archive. Free models for cultural sites worldwide.
• Direct Gaussian Style Optimization (DGSO): Stylizing 3D Gaussian Splats. Applying style transfer during gaussian optimization to produce stylized gaussian splats of a scene.
• Eisko Paid. Digital human scanning and asset service.
• Gaussian Splats Town Hall - Part 2. PixelReconstruct YouTube. Community town hall on Gaussian Splatting tooling.
• Gaussian Splatting 3D. Python/CUDA Gaussian Splatting implementation.
• Gaussian Splatting is pretty cool. Aras Pranckevicius blog. How Gaussian Splatting works under the hood.
• Gaussian Splatting Lightning. A 3D Gaussian Splatting framework with various derived algorithms and an interactive web viewer
• Infinite-Realities (Triple-I) Paid. Photogrammetry and light-stage rentals for film and games.
• Intro to gaussian splatting (and Unity plugin). Blog walkthrough of Gaussian Splatting with a Unity plugin demo.
• JaxNeRF. Deng et al., 2020. JAX NeRF with multi-device training.
• Light Probe Image Gallery. Original mirror-ball HDR probes (Grace Cathedral, Uffizi, etc.). Still used in IBL teaching.
• Making Gaussian Splats more smaller. Aras Pranckevicius blog. Further Gaussian Splat size reduction.
• Making Gaussian Splats smaller. Aras Pranckevicius blog. Shrinking Gaussian Splat file sizes.
• Meshroom. AliceVision photogrammetry pipeline. Reconstructs 3D meshes from photos.
• Metastage Paid. LA volumetric capture studio using Microsoft tech.
• Mip-NeRF. google, 2021. Anti-aliased NeRF reference implementation.
• MrNeRF (awesome-3D-gaussian-splatting). Curated awesome-list of 3D Gaussian Splatting papers, tools, and viewers.
• NeRF. Mildenhall et al., 2020. Original NeRF reference implementation.
• NeRF (PyTorch3D). facebookresearch, 2020. NeRF project inside PyTorch3D.
• NeRF-PyTorch (yenchenlin). Yen-Chen Lin, 2020. Faithful PyTorch reimplementation of NeRF.
• NeRF-PyTorch-Lightning (nerf_pl). kwea123, 2020. NeRF in PyTorch-Lightning.
• NeRF-W (nerf_pl). kwea123, 2021. NeRF in the Wild reimplementation.
• Nerfstudio gsplat. CUDA-accelerated Gaussian Splatting library integrated with Nerfstudio (Apache-2.0).
• Nerfstudio Unofficial. Unofficial Nerfstudio fork adding Gaussian Splatting support.
• Neural Rendering (YouTube). Ben Mildenhall
• Open Heritage 3D. Open scan datasets for heritage sites.
• openMVG. A library for computer-vision scientists targeted for the Multiple View Geometry community.
• Overview of Gaussian Splatting. Towards Data Science article. End-to-end overview of Gaussian Splatting.
• Paul Debevec. Site of the IBL and HDR-from-bracketed papers, Light Probe Image Gallery, Light Stage research history.
• Photogrammetry Guide. Guide to photogrammetry covering applications, libraries, and tools.
• Photogrammetry Importer. Addon to import different photogrammetry formats into Blender.
• Polyscope. A C++ & Python viewer for 3D data like meshes and point clouds.
• Smithsonian 3D. Historical artifacts.
  See also: Assets & Libraries → Model Libraries: Specialized
• Stanford Digital Michelangelo. Foundational large-statue laser scanning project (Marc Levoy).
• SuperSplat. A browser-based tool for inspecting, editing, optimizing and publishing 3D Gaussian Splats.
• Ten24 Paid. Full-body photogrammetry rig services for games and film.
• USC ICT Graphics Lab. Home of Light Stage research and digital-human capture papers.
• Volucap Paid. Babelsberg volumetric video studio.

Retopology & Mesh Tools

Retopology and mesh processing.

Related:

• Danny Mac 3D. Character modeling, posing, rigging, retopology, sculpting.
• Instant Meshes Remesh. Blender addon wrapping Instant Meshes for fast auto-retopology.
• Quad Remesher Paid. Auto-quad retopology plugin (Exoside) for Maya, 3ds Max, Blender, C4D, Modo, Houdini, ZBrush. ZRemesher-style algorithm.
  See also: Software Reference → Retopology & UV Software
• Retopo MT Paid. Tool for retopo, you use it in addition with other addons or tools in Blender, in Edit Mode.
• RetopoFlow 3 Paid. Blender retopology suite with sketch, contour, strip, patches, and tweak tools. Sold via Blender Market.
  See also: Software Reference → Retopology & UV Software
• SpeedRetopo. Free add-on for Blender to make fast and easy retopology using Bsurface.
• Topology Guides. Topology reference.
• ZWrap Paid. ZBrush plugin (R3DS) that auto-wraps a base topology onto a scan or sculpt. Standard for garment/character retopo.
  See also: Software Reference → Retopology & UV Software

UV Tools

UV unwrapping, packing, and UDIM tools.

Related:

• UV Checker Map Maker. Custom UV checker textures.
• UV Grid Generator. Web tool to generate custom UV checker textures.
• UV Toolkit Paid. Tools collection for UV editing in blender.

Rigging & Animation Tools

Auto-rig, retargeting, and animation middleware.

• AccuRIG. Free application designed for fast and easy character rigging.
• APEX (Houdini) Paid. SideFX's procedural node-based rigging framework.
• Auto-Rig Pro (Blender) Paid. Automatic rigging and retargeting.
• CvWrap. Fast Maya wrap deformer.
• EasyMocap. Open-source toolbox for markerless human motion capture and novel view synthesis from RGB videos.
• Mesh2Motion. FREE & open-source web application to animate your 3D models. Supports humanoid, four-legged, and bird creatures.
• Onion Skin Renderer. Onion Skin Renderer for Maya.
• ossos. A complete character skinning & animation library for the web
• trigger. Operational code-driven rigging tool for Autodesk Maya.

Matchmoving & Camera Tracking

Camera tracking, object tracking, and camera matching tools.

Related:

• F Spy Maya. Unofficial fSpy Maya importer (one of several).
• Lockdown Paid. After Effects plugin for tracking warped, deforming surfaces (faces, fabric, skin). Mesh-based.
• VFX Camera Database. Reference database of camera sensor sizes, formats, and specs for matchmoving and lens setup.
  See also: Tools, Pipeline & Utilities → Miscellaneous 3D Tools & Utilities

Miscellaneous 3D Tools & Utilities

Assorted CG utilities and specialty tools.

Related:

• 3DN BIP. Fast image-preview Python library for Blender, a bpy.utils.previews drop-in replacement.
• Advanced Blender Add-on. Starter kit and annotated design patterns for advanced Blender addon development.
• Blender Addon Tester. Pytest-based test harness for running Blender addon tests inside a target Blender version.
• Blender CLI Rendering. Python scripts for rendering images with Blender from the command line.
• Blender Launcher. Standalone client for managing official Blender builds.
• Blender Manager. Standalone app for Blender auto-update, project management, time tracking, addon control and render management.
• Blender Scripting. Python scripting examples for Blender, from simple to advanced.
• Blender Updater CLI. Command-line version of BlenderUpdater.
• Blender Version Manager. Minimal download manager for Blender builds.
• BlenderUpdater. Download and install Blender nightly builds with one click.
• City Roads. Generate road maps of any city as vector art.
• DEM Net Elevation API Freemium. Live 3D textured terrain generation from real data - export height/normal maps, glTF, OBJ, STL
• DEM Net Elevation API C#. Terrain generation from real data with textures, normal maps, glTF, OBJ, STL support
• Developer Documentation. Blender developer docs: development process, design, architecture, and build instructions.
• emojillate. Pixellate an image into emoji
• EZGIF. Online GIF and video editing and conversion tools.
  See also: Art, Design & Visual Storytelling → Design Tools
• Fake Bpy Module. Fake Blender Python API modules for IDE code completion.
• Graphtoy. Mathematical function grapher by Inigo Quilez.
• HDRI To Cube Map. A tool to convert your HDRI file into a Cube map.
• Jsplacement. Procedural displacement map generator.
• Kiko. DCC-agnostic animation-curve interchange. Transfers curves between Maya and Nuke.
• Math for Motion. Interactive math concepts for motion graphics.
• Palladio. CityEngine Plugin for Houdini
• Penzil. A web application to sketch in 3d made in three.js and Vue.
• RedKetchup Twitter Downloader. Save MP4 and GIF video from Twitter posts.
• Sorcar. A procedural modeling node-based system which uses Blender and its Python API to create a visual programming environment for artists and developers
• Sprite Stacker. Create pseudo-3D sprite stacks from pixel art with integrated voxel editor (Godot-based, pre-1.0).
• SunCalc. Sun position, golden hour, and shadow visualization for any location and time.
• Tangram Heightmapper. Interactive grayscale heightmap browser, which can generate heightmaps for use in 3D applications.
• Texture Extractor. Extract textures and materials from photos (Godot-based, pre-1.0).
• VFX Camera Database. Reference database of camera sensor sizes, formats, and specs for matchmoving and lens setup.
  See also: Tools, Pipeline & Utilities → Matchmoving & Camera Tracking
• WebGL Texture Tester. Attempts to load one of every texture format supported by WebGL, intended to quickly show which formats your browser/device supports.
• Wumbo Math Glossary. Visual glossary of math concepts useful for technical art.

Plugin & Addon Marketplaces

Per-software plugin marketplaces.

• 30 Free PBR materials by Artem Lebedev. 30 free PBR material set for Blender.
• aescripts + aeplugins Paid. Primary After Effects / Premiere plugin marketplace.
• Archipack Paid. Parametric architectural primitives for ArchViz in Blender, with realtime on-screen editing.
• Autodesk App Store Paid. Official Maya plugins and scripts.
• Blender Osm Freemium. One click download and import of OpenStreetMap and terrain for Blender.
• BlenderAddons.org. Provides a list of free and paid Blender addons. Find the addon you need under categories or tags.
• Blenderkit Paid. In-app asset browser.
• Brush Manager for Blender. Create custom Blender brushes, store them in a file, and organize a categorized brush library.
• BY GEN. Blender addon for non-destructive, generative modeling styles.
• City Scatter. Generate cityscape concepts, powered by Blender's collection system.
• E Cycles Paid. Cycles fork that renders up to 2.5x faster on CUDA GPUs, up to 15x with new options.
• EasyBPY. Abstraction layer over the Blender Python API (bpy) for more readable, memorable scripting.
• ExtraInfo. Show more info in the viewport.
• FlippedNormals Freemium. 3D education site by Henning Sanden and Morten Jaeger. Discord community for character artists and 3D learners.
  See also: Learning, Community & Industry → 3D Communities & Forums
• Flow Map Painter. Blender addon with a brush tool for flow-map painting.
• Free Hard Surface KitBash Models. Free hard-surface and sci-fi kitbash model sets.
• Free Sky Environment Shading. Free custom procedural environment shading.
• Free VDB Clouds. Pack of 3 cloud VDBs for large aerial views.
• Greyscalegorilla (site) Paid. C4D plugins, materials, HDRIs.
• Gumroad Paid. Creator-direct marketplace.
• gumroad/bluefoxcreation Freemium. Blue Fox Creation Gumroad. Blender motion-graphics products and tutorials.
• gumroad/simonthommes Freemium. Simon Thommes Gumroad. Free and paid Blender materials.
• Higgsas Blender Freemium. Higgsas Gumroad. Free and paid Blender geometry-nodes setups.
• Highend3d Paid. Maya community scripts and plugins.
• jamajurabaev Freemium. Jama Jurabaev Gumroad. Concept-art brushes and tutorials.
• KIT OPS Freemium. Kitbash-driven hard-surface modeling for Blender. Build complex industrial designs fast.
• Kitbash3D Paid. High-end kitbash asset packs.
• Layer Painter Paid. Layer-based PBR material painting in Blender, with masks, filters, and procedurals.
• MACHIN3tools. Free collection of Blender tools and pie menus in one customizable package.
• Maxivz’s Interactive Tools. Collection of intuitive, context sensitive tools for Blender.
• Mech/Fy. A procedural workflow that automates the process of hard surfaces modelling.
• MotionArray Paid. Motion graphics and video assets.
• Orbolt Paid. Official Houdini HDA marketplace.
• Parallax UV Mapping. Parallax mapping material and node setup for Blender, works in EEVEE and Cycles.
• Path Solver HDA. Houdini HDA that distributes points/objects along a path without intersections.
• Photographer 2. Blender camera addon for exposure, white balance, and autofocus. Now free.
• Pixel Art Rendering. Free Blender addon for pixel-art-style renders in EEVEE, with Bayer dithering and multiple lights.
• Point Based Growth HDA. Houdini point based growth Asset.
• Poly Source. Shows ngon/quad/tri counts on the active object to keep topology clean in Blender.
• PowerSave. Streamlines and simplifies saving in Blender.
• Reactor (DaVinci). Community package manager for DaVinci Resolve, hundreds of free tools.
• Speedflow Paid. Blender addon for a non-destructive modifier workflow.
• Speedsculpt Paid. Blender addon for fast character sculpting with Dyntopo, booleans, curves, skin modifier, and masks.
• SSGI for EEVEE. Converts diffuse and Principled BSDFs to node groups for a screen-space global illumination effect in EEVEE.
• Super Fast Render Paid. Either uses preset render settings optimised to speed up render times or Uses a benchmark to detect the fastest settings for the same render quality
• Super Res Render Paid. Plugin that splits renders up into several chunks to make rendering at super high resolutions possible.
• Texel Density Checker. Blender addon to calculate, set, and copy texel density.
• Universal Human Rigged Base Mesh Paid. Rigged human base mesh.
• VideoHive (Envato) Paid. Templates and presets.
• Wrap Deformer. Houdini wrap deformer. Surface-proximity alternative to point deform.

Conversion Tools

Format conversion across image, video, audio, and 3D.

Related:

• 123apps Freemium. Free web tools for audio, video, image.
• 3DGS Converter. Format conversion tool for 3D Gaussian Splatting data.
• Assimp (GitHub). Open-source library, 40+ 3D format import (C/C++/Python).
• Assimp (site). A portable Open-Source library to import various well-known 3D model formats in a uniform manner.
• CloudConvert Freemium. 200+ formats with API.
• Convertio Freemium. Multi-format converter.
• F Spy USD. Unofficial fSpy to USD converter.
• FBX2glTF. Meta's CLI for FBX → glTF 2.0.
• FreeConvert Freemium. Free online file converter.
• glTF Pipeline. GlTF ↔ GLB, Draco compress, texture resize.
• GLTF Report. Web app to diagnose and optimize glTF files. Inspector supports BASIS/KTX2 textures. By Don McCurdy.
• glTF Transform. JS library/CLI for reading, editing, optimizing glTF (Draco, KTX2).
• glTF Validator. Official Khronos spec validation.
• glTF Viewer. Web-based glTF/GLB viewer.
• gltfpack. Aggressive glTF mesh/texture optimization.
• ImageMagick. CLI, 200+ image formats.
• MAZANOKE. Browser-based converter.
• Needle USD Converter. Web-based USD/USDZ viewer and converter.
• obj2gltf. Cesium's OBJ → glTF with PBR mapping.
• OIIO (OpenImageIO). ASWF CLI tools, 100+ formats. VFX pipeline standard.
• Online Convert Freemium. Web-based format converter.
• Packyderm. A lightweight tool that lets you browse and extract the contents of unitypackage files without opening Unity
• Pixelicious. Image-to-Pixel Art converter.
• PNGQuant. CLI lossy PNG compression.
• Retargeting Mixamo Animation Tool. Web tool to retarget Mixamo animations.
• SoX. CLI audio processing.
• Squoosh. Google. AVIF/WebP/JPEG XL image compression.
• TinyPNG Freemium. Lossy PNG/JPEG compression.
• VERT.sh. General-purpose online converter.

Pipeline Standards

Interchange formats and standards.

• ACES 2.0. Academy Color Encoding System. Widely adopted in film/TV, growing in games.
• Alembic. Geometry/animation interchange format (Sony + ILM).
• MaterialX (GitHub). Source repo for the MaterialX material and look-dev interchange standard.
• MaterialX (site). Material interchange format (Lucasfilm). Supported by USD, Blender, Maya, Houdini, Arnold, RenderMan, Substance.
• MDL. Material Definition Language SDK (NVIDIA).
• Open Color IO. Color management solution for motion picture production. Open source.
• Open Image IO. A library for reading and writing images in many common and VFX-related formats.
• OpenCue. Render management system from Sony Imageworks. Open source.
• OpenDCX. C++ extensions for OpenEXR's "deep" file format (DreamWorks).
• OpenEXR. High dynamic range image format for visual effects, from ILM.
• OpenPBR. Standardized uber-shader for PBR (Autodesk + Adobe).
• OpenTimelineIO (GitHub). Editorial timeline interchange (Pixar).
• VFX Reference Platform. Annual spec of library versions (Python, Qt, OpenEXR, USD) that VFX apps build against for cross-tool compatibility.

Pipeline Overview

Industry-to-software quick reference.

• Motion Graphics Pipeline Paid. Primary software. Cinema 4D, After Effects. Key considerations. Stylized looks, fast iteration.

Viewers & File Utilities

Also in Software Reference → Viewers & File Utilities

Pipeline & Production Management Software

Also in Software Reference → Pipeline & Production Management Software

Misc 3D Utilities Software

Also in Software Reference → Misc 3D Utilities Software