5 Worthwhile Purchases For 3d Artists

Ready to turn your hobby into a serious art form? These products will make your life that little bit easier.

1. CrazyBump

This amazing program creates detailed bump maps from any still image you throw at it. Watch the video on their homepage to see a demonstration. It’s simple, easy to use and the results are speak for themselves. Be warned, once you’ve used this program, it’s hard to live without it.

Price: $99 Personal / $299 Commercial License

Buy: crazybump.com

2. 3d World Subscription

It’s certainly not the cheapest magazine around, but the value you get more than makes up for it. Every issue is jam packed with articles from industry professionals, an inspirational gallery of works, making of feature films and tons of tutorials.

Price: Yearly subscription – $80 UK / $90 Rest of the World

Buy: myfavouritemagazines.co.uk

3. CG Textures Membership

It’s no secret that the best place to find textures is CGTextures.com, but whilst the website lets you sign up for free, you are restricted to a tight download quota and smaller sized textures. A paid membership solves all these problems as well as giving you full access to their full sky map range, basically meaning it pays for itself on the first day.

Price: Starting at $65 a year

Buy: cgtextures.com

4. Digital Lighting and Rendering

This best selling book has become the industry standard for learning how to light your scene. From sub surf scattering to caustics, this book will teach you how to make your scene ridiculously good looking. If you’re serious about 3d, this book deserves a spot on your shelf.

Price: $37.80

Buy: amazon.com

5. Graphics Tablet

Whether it’s for 3d sculpting or just sketching out your ideas in photoshop first, a graphics tablet is definitely a good idea. A mouse can be cumbersome to work with at times, so it can help to work at the speed of your thoughts with a much more natural solution. Concept artist, David Revoy recommended the Bamboo Fun as an all round, cost effective tablet with more than enough features for what most artists will need.

Price: $299

Buy: wacom.com.au