Cheetah3D
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
This article is orphaned as few or no other articles link to it. Please help introduce links in articles on related topics. (September 2006) |
 |
This article or section needs sources or references that appear in reliable, third-party publications. Primary sources and sources affiliated with the subject of the article are generally not sufficient for a Wikipedia article. Please include more appropriate citations from reliable sources, or discuss the issue on the talk page. This article has been tagged since December 2006. |
| Cheetah3D | |
|---|---|
 |
|
 An example scene demonstrating the Cheetah3D renderer. |
|
| Developed by | Martin Wengenmayer |
| Latest release | 4.6 / May 14, 2008 |
| OS | Mac OS X |
| Genre | Computer graphics |
| License | Proprietary |
| Website | http://www.cheetah3d.com |
Cheetah3d is a computer graphics program for 3D modelling, animation and rendering. It is written in Cocoa for Mac OS X. The program is aimed at beginning and amateur 3D artists, but is also used by professionals. It offers a number of medium- and high-end features in conjunction with a relatively simple user interface. Its simplicity [1] is what makes it stand apart from such programs as Blender, which is cross-platform and open source, but is still more difficult to use. It was initially released in 2003 [2], and is available as a Universal binary for Mac OS X [3]. A single user license is $149 US. A free demo version is available, without the ability to save or export models.
[edit] Features
Cheetah3D is aimed primarily at amateur artists, and so focuses on providing features for creating simple 3D scenes. Its selection of features is narrow but focused to add in its usefulness and simplicity. For example, it supports a variety of geometric primitives, including polygon meshes and Bezier curves. Its features also allow for box modeling with subdivision surfaces In addition, it has some simple animation support, including spline-based camera paths and targeted objects. It also supports skeletal deformations, morph targets, and subdivision surfaces, making its single character animation effective. However, the software is currently unable to animate more than a single character.
The program also has advanced rendering settings, which allow for antialiasing, raytraced shadows, depth of field, HDRI, ambient occlusion, caustics lighting, soft shadowing and photon-mapped caustics.
The program uses many of the common 3D file formats, including 3ds, obj, sia, and FBX. Media produced by the program can also be used in Unity 3D, which is a game development tool.
The latest version Cheetah 3D is 4.6, which requires at least Mac OS X v10.4, but is also compatible with Mac OS X v10.5[4].
