Blender AlternativesOnly apps categorised as VFX Software

The best VFX alternative to Blender is Autodesk Maya. It's not free, so if you're looking for a free alternative, you could try Natron or Vue. If that doesn't suit you, our users have ranked more than 100 alternatives to Blender and 13 are VFX Software so hopefully you can find a suitable replacement. Other interesting VFX Software alternatives to Blender are Houdini, Autodesk Flame, LightWave and PopcornFX.

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Blender alternatives are mainly VFX Software, but if you're looking for 3D Animators or 3D Modelers you can filter on that. Other popular filters include Windows, Free, Android, iPad, Open Source, Online and Android Tablet + VFX. These are just examples - use the filter bar below to find more specific alternatives to Blender.
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Alternatives list

  1. Autodesk Maya icon
     149 likes

    Professional-grade 3D modeling, animation, rendering, and visual FX software used in films, TV, and games, featuring advanced tools, Bifrost effects, and a visual programming environment for intricate simulations.

    61 Autodesk Maya alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Subscription
    • Proprietary

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
     
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    59
    • Most users think Autodesk Maya is a great Blender alternative.

    • Autodesk Maya is the most popular Windows, Mac & Linux alternative to Blender.

    • Autodesk Maya is the most popular commercial alternative to Blender.

    • Autodesk Maya is Paid and ProprietaryBlender is Free and Open Source
  2. Natron icon
     208 likes

    Natron is an open source, cross platform nodal compositing application. It is built around industry standard open source tech such as OpenFX, OpenEXR, OpenColorIO and OpenImageIO. The feature set includes realtime playback/RAM cache, multi-threaded rendering, 2d tracking...

    18 Natron alternatives

    Cost / License

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
     
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    4
    18
    Comments about Natron as an Alternative to Blender
    tvgoing1
    Negative
    8

    it does not build 3d models, it has no game design, natron is mostly use for videos, and it doesnt allow 3d models in the program

    Guest
    Negative
    1

    It's not for Composing in 3D!

    Review by a new / low-activity user.
    Guest
    Positive
    -1

    It does compositing too. If this isn't an alternative, you might want to take Nuke off as well

    Review by a new / low-activity user.
    3 of 4 comments
    Blender Icon
    Natron icon
    • Most users think Natron is a great Blender alternative.

    • Natron is Free and Open SourceBlender is also Free and Open Source
  3. Houdini icon
     40 likes

    Houdini covers all the major areas of 3D production, including:

    • Modeling - All standard geometry entities including Polygons, (Hierarchical) NURBs/Bezier Curves/Patches & Trims, Metaballs
    • Animation - Keyframed animation and raw channel manipulation (CHOPs), motion captur.
    48 Houdini alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Pay once
    • Proprietary

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
     
  4. Vue icon
     29 likes

    Create vast expanses of terrains, add trees, select the best point of view and render hyper-realistic images of your landscapes in moody atmospheres... in a few mouse clicks.

    62 Vue alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Proprietary

    Application type

    Alerts

    • Discontinued

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
     
    |
    1
    Comments about Vue as an Alternative to Blender
    Guest
    Negative
    0

    Vue does landscapes primarily

    Review by a new / low-activity user.
    Blender Icon
    Vue icon
    • Some users think Vue is a great Blender alternative, some don't.

    • Vue is Free and ProprietaryBlender is Free and Open Source
  5. Autodesk Flame software is a powerful finishing and visual effects solution with an integrated environment that accelerates creative workflows.

    Cost / License

    • Pay once or Subscription
    • Proprietary

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
     
  6. LightWave icon
     17 likes

    LightWave 3D combines a state-of-the-art renderer with powerful, intuitive modeling, and animation tools. Tools that may cost extra in other professional 3D applications are part of the product package, including 999 free cross-platform render nodes, support for Windows and Mac...

    Cost / License

    • Paid
    • Proprietary

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
     
  7. PopcornFX icon
     4 likes

    A suite of tools dedicated to real-time visual effects creation, along with ready-to-run mainstream game engine integrations and a runtime simulation framework for custom integration.

    25 PopcornFX alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free Personal
    • Proprietary

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Windows
    • Linux
    • Mac
    • Flathub
    • Flatpak
     
  8. Apple Motion icon
     23 likes

    Designed for video editors, Motion is a powerful motion graphics tool that makes it easy to create cinematic 2D and 3D titles, fluid transitions, and realistic effects in real time.

    27 Apple Motion alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Pay once
    • Proprietary

    Platforms

    • Mac
     
    |
    1
    Comments about Apple Motion as an Alternative to Blender
    Guest
    Negative
    1

    Motion is designed primarily for 2D and relatively simple 3D animation, whereas you can model and rig 3D characters in Blender.

    Review by a new / low-activity user.
    Blender Icon
    Apple Motion icon
    • Apple Motion is Paid and ProprietaryBlender is Free and Open Source
  9. EmberGen icon
     2 likes

    EmberGen uses the full power of your GPU—so you can simulate and render volumetric phenomena in real-time for faster iterations than ever before. Utilize random seeds to generate new variations on the fly.

    Cost / License

    • Freemium (Pay once)
    • Proprietary

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
     
  10. Action Pro icon
     1 like

    Action Pro is cutting-edge technology that lets you effortlessly create animated movement using familiar (mouse and joypad) and cutting-edge (Leap Motion) input devices.

    Cost / License

    • Pay once
    • Proprietary

    Application type

    Alerts

    • Discontinued

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
     
  11. Solar icon
     2 likes

    Lightstream Solar is a new GPU-accelerated high-end compositor for VFX work.

    The software provides a node and tree-based workflow, and offers the range of tools one would expect in an app of this type, including layer management tools, colour correction and grading, and addition.

    Cost / License

    • Paid
    • Proprietary

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Windows
     
  12. Deep FX Studio is a general purpose 3D computer graphics application that runs on Windows and will be ported to Linux in the future. Tools anyone can use and master. Built from the ground up to be intuitive for artists who only want to focus on their art, and technical artists...

    Cost / License

    • Pay once
    • Proprietary

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Windows
     
12 of 13 Blender alternatives