Maxon Cinema 4D 10 - Maxon

Maxon's high-end modelling, rendering and animation application, Cinema 4D, has finally made it into double figures with the release of version 10. To celebrate, it's got a new outfit. The first thing you'll notice when you fire it up is that it's gone all grey and sculpted - very modo-like - and looks rather smart... read more at MacUserUK

LightWave 9 - LightWave

LightWave reborn' is how NewTek describes the ninth incarnation of its high-end 3D application. And while the program will look familiar to seasoned users, there are more than enough changes across the board to justify this claim... read more at MacUserUK

Lineform 1.2.2 - Freeverse

Adobe Illustrator is arguably the most powerful vector-editing application on the market but few designers can fail to be frustrated by its performance on current top-end Macs.
Suddenly there's an alternative: Lineform is a lightweight application that offers a good chunk of Illustrator's features without the bulky price tag or poor performance... read more at MacUserUK

Modo 202 - Luxology

When we first reviewed Luxology's Modo in its 102 guise, it was a modelling-only application, albeit a very capable one. Version 202 has greatly increased its toolset and capabilities, adding rendering and, intriguingly, real-time 3D texture painting... read more at MacUserUK

Artlantis Studio 1.2 - Artlantis

Artlantis, a rendering - and now animation - program from French developer Abvent, has always relied on a lateral-thinking approach to its tasks. The original version wowed 3D artists with its ability to drag and drop materials onto objects in a fully rendered 3D environment, then have those same objects' material attributes update in real time. This approach saved users from the endless apply-test render-tweak cycle... read more at MacUserUK

Maya 8 - Autodesk

When Autodesk acquired Maya's developer Alias, there were fears that it would kill off Maya and roll its features into their own 3D application, the Windows-only 3D Studio MAX. But AD quickly assured customers that this will not be the case... read more at MacUserUK

Form•Z 6.0.1 - formZ

Form•Z 6.0.1 is one of the biggest releases in the history of Auto•des•sys' feature-rich modelling, rendering and, now, animation application. This latest version finally adds a greatly expanded animation toolset, enabling you to animate whole objects and lights. Previous versions limited animation to cameras for walkthroughs and fly-bys... read more at MacUserUK

Google SketchUp 5 - Google

Following its acquisition by Google, 3D modelling application SketchUp is available as a free download. Google SketchUp, as it's now called, offers almost all of the functionality of the previous SketchUp 5, which lives on as SketchUp Pro. So just what has Google done with it... read more at MacUserUK

TurboCAD 3D Macintosh - IMSI

TurboCAD 3D Macintosh has all of the features and tools of its 2-D cousin, TurboCAD 2D, including the same easy-to-use interface. In addition, TurboCAD 3D has an extensive set of 3-D tools and commands that CAD users will immediately find familiar, such as 3-D primitives, extrude, lathe, sweep, as well as surface and solid Boolean operations... read more at Macworld

TurboCAD 2D Macintosh - IMSI

TurboCAD 2D Macintosh is an easy-to-use 2-D CAD (computer-aided design) application aimed at both professionals and non-professionals. Its straightforward interface will be familiar to anyone with experience using CAD or drawing programs. It includes all of the typical tools, such as multiple line types, polygons, double lines, curves, and dimensions—as well as drafting aids like object and grid snap... read more at Macworld

MojoWorld 3 - Pandromeda

Most Mac terrain-generator apps work on landscapes where the viewpoint ranges from a few feet to 30 miles above the virtual surface. MojoWorld is different. It’s optimized to work on a global scale, with views as far away as outer space. Pandromeda waxes lyrical about the dreamlike possibilities, such as creating flight paths hundreds or thousands of miles in length... read more at MacAddict

Manga Studio 3 EX Professional - CU

Creating comic books on a Mac is a surprisingly difficult task. The combination of tools required is formidable: artists need to draw the comics, trace rough sketches, add patterns and tones, add speech bubbles and text within them, place individual compositions within editable frames, assemble the artwork on a page and compile multiple pages into a finished comic... read more at MacUserUK

Modeler 3.6 - Microspot

Microspot's Modeler application has picked up quite a few new features on its way to 3.6 status. So many, in fact, that its name is now something of a misnomer, as it includes lighting, texturing, rendering and even animation. It also shares a lot of its interface elements with its companion product, Interiors, so tools such as the Navicam, Camera tripod, Nudge and Info palettes will all be immediately familiar... read more at MacUserUK

Cheetah 3D 3.0.1 - Martin Wengenmayer

Now in its third major release, Cheetah 3D goes from strength to strength. It distinguishes itself from a lot of its competition in the modelling, rendering and animation arena by offering some extremely high-end features at an affordable price... read more at MacUserUK

Interiors 3.6 - Microspot

Interiors is aimed at the novice to intermediate interior designer, with the aim of making the process as easy as possible. To this end it makes heavy use of libraries of pre-defined components, covering a wide range of fixtures and fittings, from urinals to gazebos to entire cafe bar set-ups. There's even a comprehensive collection of past and present Apple hardware featuring Cinema Displays... read more at MacUserUK

Painter Essentials 3.0 - Corel

Some people have natural artistic ability, while others, despite their creative leanings, do not. I am a member of the latter group: I can barely trace my own hand, yet the idea of being able to paint or draw is nonetheless incredibly enticing... read more at Macworld

Vue 5 Easel - E-on Software

E-on software's Vue family of applications are primarily landscape generation programs - although they also offer additional object creation and animation capabilities. We were greatly impressed with Vue 5 Infinite earlier this year. Its extremely fast Global Illumination/radiosity rendering and its ability to handle polygon counts in the billions without breaking into a sweat marked it out as a program of the highest calibre... read more at MacUserUK

FormZ 5.5 - formZ

FormZ 5.5, the latest version of this venerable 3D modeller, marks a mustering of forces before the big push to FormZ 6, which will introduce full object animation facilities, rather than the simple camera animation offered at present... read more at MacUserUK

Carrara 5 Pro - Eovia

The most immediately noticeable improvement is in the application's interface, which has been considerably cleaned up and now looks much more grown up. The browser has been moved from the left side of the screen and integrated with the Sequencer (timeline), and this gives far more room to the main workspace ... read more at MacUserUK

LightWave 8.5 - NewTek

LightWave, NewTek's high-end 3D package, has changed significantly since we last reviewed it. It received an across-the-board upgrade in version 8, with improvements made in particular to the speed of character rigging and in integration (via the Hub application) between Modeler and Layout. Of particular note was the introduction of rigid-body dynamics, in addition to the already-present cloth and soft-body dynamics ... read more at MacUserUK

Maya 7 - Alias

There are numerous tweaks and improvements, but probably the largest is in the Animation department. Maya's Inverse Kinematics (IK) algorithms - the routines that set up characters so they can be manipulated like traditional marionettes - has been totally overhauled. It's what Alias calls 'full-body' IK. Traditionally, IK effects would propagate up a chain and stop at a particular node. So, for example, moving a character's hand would cause the forearm and upper arm to follow, but the movement would stop at the shoulder. Now, in version 7, moving the hand far enough can cause movement to propagate through the entire skeleton ... read more at MacUserUK

SketchUp 5 - Computers Unlimited

SketchUp maker, @Last, has been busy adding features and polish to the new version 5 of its 3D modelling application, and has obviously been listening to its users, judging from the myriad small, but significant, changes to the application's interface and tools ... read more at MacUserUK

Artlantis R - Artlantis

Artlantis, from French developer Abvent, has been around on the Mac for some ten years now. The unique selling point of the product has always been to make the application of materials and scene rendering as easy as possible, with real-time updating of the fully rendered scene. Artlantis R ships alongside the original program, and the clue to the difference is in the title: the 'R' stands for radiosity ... read more at MacUserUK

Hexagon - CU

Mac OS X seems to be attracting 3D modellers like bees to a honeypot these days. The latest arrival is Hexagon from French firm Eovia, maker of Carrara and Amapi. Hexagon is intended to supplement the rather weak modelling tools in Carrara. It shares a lot of its toolset with Amapi, but isn't intended as a replacement ... read more at MacUserUK

SketchBook Pro 2 - Alias|Wavefront

SketchBook Pro is a painting program designed to be as natural feeling as possible and to mimic the approach of traditional pen-and-paper media. 'SketchBook' should give you a clue as to where the program's interface gets its cues: it initially presents just a plain white 'sheet' with a discreet arc of tools in the lower left-hand corner. The first two of the five icons represent Tools (Layers, Selection and the like) and Brushes, and it's here that you'll spend most time ... read more at MacUserUK

Canvas X - ACD Systems

As an image-editing and illustration program particularly well-suited to technical drawings, ACD Systems’ Canvas X is truly desert island software—if you can have only one application, Canvas X can handle every graphical task ... read more at Macworld

form•Z 5 - formZ

Auto•des•sys' form•Z is a modelling powerhouse that boasts one of the most extensive feature sets of any program on the Mac. Version 5 has ushered in many enhancements and is the first version to be Mac OS X-only, as support for the Classic environment has been dropped with this release ... read more at MacUserUK

KidPix 3 - Softline

KidPix is a painting program with a difference. Unlike programs such as Photoshop, it's made for children, although adults will find it fun as well. The original version appeared almost 10 years ago, and version 3 offers fun painting features with animations, sounds and slideshows, all designed to hold the attention of younger, more impatient Mac users ... read more at MacUserUK

Adobe Illustrator CS2 - Adobe

In recent upgrades, Illustrator has exhibited a marked tendency to concentrate on flashy but little-used special effects. This time around, Adobe has hit us with just the one major new feature - but it's a big one: the ability to turn drawn sketches and bitmap artwork into smooth vector illustrations ... read more at MacUserUK

Magical Sketch 2 - Curious Labs

Novelist May Sarton wrote that “childhood is a place as well as a time.” Magical Sketch 2’s digital toolkit helps decorate that space. It sharpens perception and unleashes imagination by providing children with opportunities for open-ended creative self-expression ... read more at macHOME

modo 1.0.2 -Luxology

Luxology’s modo 102 is the best tool we’ve seen for subdivision-surface (sub-d) modeling, a technique typically used to create 3-D models of characters and other organic surfaces. In some ways similar to Nevercenter’s Silo 1.3 (; January 2005)—but more advanced in depth, flexibility, and customizability—modo offers a chameleon-like interface, an elaborate tool set, and powerful scripting .... read more at Macworld

Mirage 1.2 - Bauhaus Software

Mirage comes with typical paint tools (pens, pencils, and airbrushes) as well as unique ones that you can make the most of using a graphics tablet. The OilBrush tool, for example, creates strokes with the look of oil paint on canvas, the WetBrush tool simulates a wet watercolor paintbrush, and the WarpBrush and SpecialBrush tools warp and smear (respectively) your images for interesting effects .... read more at MacAddict

Amapi Pro 7.5 - Amapi

Since version 7, Amapi has moved closer to mainstream 3D applications, offering standard toolbar and multiview setups to view its 3D models. But it kept its gesture-based 'immersive' interface below the surface for those used to the old (and perhaps more intuitive) way of doing things, with dynamic, graduated axes and dynamic working planes that orientate themselves to be perpendicular to the camera view. Version 7 beefed up the modelling toolset too, providing a solid base for future releases .... read more at MacUserUK

FrameForge 3D Studio - Innoventive Software

FrameForge 3D Studio is an affordable, easy way to create and manage high-quality storyboards—an essential part of any video or film project. While using 3-D software for storyboarding and previsualization is becoming standard practice, the only tools for such projects in the past have been complex 3-D-modeling..... read more at Macworld

Silo 1.3 - Nevercenter

Sub-d modeling allows artists to model complex, smoothly blended surfaces. The classic example is a human head: by manipulating relatively simple polygonal shapes in Silo, you can define the complicated geometry where the nose meets the upper lip, creating perfect, smooth blends. Silo has a powerful package of polygon-editing tools..... read more at Macworld

Carrara 4 Pro - Eovia

The most important improvement is the one geared to making Carrara easier to use: the new Scene Manipulators. When you want to move, scale or rotate an object, it now displays x, y and z handles that allow you to directly manipulate the object in one of the axis directions. These are coloured red, green and blue, respectively, as are the relevant numeric entry fields in the object inspector..... read more at MacUserUK

Painter IX - Corel

It has been over 16 months since the last release of Painter, Corel's 'natural media' painting tool. The last major upgrade to version 8 saw Corel take Painter to a new professional level, but judging by the lacklustre interest the company has shown in promoting it, many Painter users feared it would suffer the same fate as Bryce 5 and be sold off cheaply to yet another developer. Thankfully, Corel thought differently and is about to release the most powerful version yet, Painter IX. ..... read more at MacUserUK

FoldUP!3D 1.5 - Comnet

So you're not a packaging designer, but sometimes you or your clients need a presentation box, point-of-sale display or some other cardboard construction to be printed flat and folded into three dimensions. How do you lay it out? This Illustrator plug-in aims to provide the answer. It doesn't make it any easier to conceive or draw 2D 'nets', but it does let you fold them up on-screen, check that they work as expected, and generate 3D animations to show clients. ..... read more at MacUserUK

SketchBook Pro - SketchBook Pro

When you think of Alias, the first things that come to mind are big, resource-heavy programs like Maya and Power Animator, costing thousands of pounds. So it will come as a surprise to learn that its latest release on the Mac is a £120 natural-media sketching and painting program. ..... read more at MacUserUK

SketchUp - @Last Software

To create a basic house, you start with the pencil tool. Draw an outline of your building (you'll be viewing downward as if facing the ground), and SketchUp will display the lengths of the lines you draw, giving you an idea of the dimensions while you're sketching. You can ignore the line lengths altogether or you can manually type in the lengths as you create lines—you can design as loosely or as accurately as you want ..... read more at MacAddict

Microspot Interiors 3.4 - Microspot

Judging by the popularity of current interior-design TV shows such as Trading Spaces and Surprise by Design, the do-it-yourselfer market is growing. Microspot Interiors 3.4, a 3-D interior-design application, provides a quick way of rendering layouts so both professionals and home owners can see their designs before they start painting or moving furniture around. And home owners will find Interiors a big help in keeping design and vision consistent...... read more at Macworld

Design Intuition 1.3 - GizmoLab

GizmoLab’s Design Intuition 1.3, a 3-D CAD software package for woodworkers and hobbyists, can quickly produce accurate, scaled drawings of 3-D models. Design professionals and home owners can use it to design projects such as decks, kitchen cabinets, or rooms..... read more at Macworld

iModeller 3D Professional 2.0 - VR Interactive

If you need to make custom 3-D models but can’t spare the time or expense, VR Interactive’s iModeller 3D Professional 2.0 can help. Instead of learning complex traditional 3-D tools, you can create 3-D models in iModeller simply by taking a series of digital photos of an object. The program then uses your photos to calculate the object’s geometry.... read more at Macworld

Vue 4 Professional - e-on software

Creating natural 3D scenery—from a simple wooded glen to a galaxy—is an art, but the Vue product line makes it an easy one. Detailed mountains, rippling water, and lush vegetation are a few mouse clicks away, and the rendered scenes look superb. Vue 4 Professional provides features pros want, such as customizability, interapplication compatibility, and network rendering... read more at MacAddict

Vue 4 Professional - e-on software

Creating natural 3D scenery—from a simple wooded glen to a galaxy—is an art, but the Vue product line makes it an easy one. Detailed mountains, rippling water, and lush vegetation are a few mouse clicks away, and the rendered scenes look superb. Vue 4 Professional provides features pros want, such as customizability, interapplication compatibility, and network rendering... read more at MacAddict

VectorWorks 10.5 - Nemetschek

When we last reviewed VectorWorks, we felt that the program was an excellent value with well-integrated 2-D and 3-D capabilities and good documentation. However, we wished for more templates and symbols, and for QuickTime VR support. Well, the QuickTime VR support is still not here, but VectorWorks 10.5 has many more templates, symbols, and textures. It's also compatible with Panther ... read more at Macworld

MacDraft 5.5 Quartz Edition - Microspot

MacDraft, from UK-based Microspot, is for producing accurate working drawings on a Mac. The program itself has a very simple interface, but one that conceals a great deal of power ... read more at MacUser UK

Piranesi 3.1 - Informatix

In its simplest form, Piranesi is a painting package with natural brush effects, much like Painter or parts of Photoshop. However, it uses a proprietary file format (EPIX, or Extended Pixel Format) that allows it to perform its clever stuff ... read more at MacUser UK

ScanFont 4 - Curious Labs

Hard-core type designers who draw their fonts directly in FontLab—or those of you who demand precise control over every curve—will tweak everything by hand anyway, but ScanFont is useful for automating a good portion of almost any type-design workflow ... read more at MacAddict

Poser 5 - Curious Labs

While most categories of software have multiple players, the realm of artificial human creation really has only one: Poser. If you want to try your hand at working with synthespians, turn to Poser to populate your screen with pixelated people ... read more at MacAddict

Carrara Studio 3 - Eovia

Carrara Studio 3 is a balanced combination of overall modeling, animation, and rendering capabilities, and it includes just about everything you need to do basic 3D work. But we need to get our two main gripes out of the way ... read more at MacAddict

Canvas 9 Professional Edition - ACD Systems

A jack-of-all-graphics software, Canvas packs bitmap-image editing, vector drawing, page layout, Web composition, and a number of other capabilities into one mildly priced solution suitable for most mortal designers ... read more at MacAddict

Illustrator CS - Adobe

If you're a type nerd, you're going to love the new version of Illustrator. Though Illustrator CS doesn't pack a lot of new drawing tools, Adobe's extensive reworking of the program's text tools makes this upgrade a typographic dream ... read more at Macworld

Freehand MX - Macromedia

GOOD NEWS: Smart, useful PostScript drawing tools. Well integrated with Flash and FireWorks.
BAD NEWS: Clunky, chunky performance. Uncooperative Objects panel and no Inspector. ... read more at MacAddict

Pixels 3D 5.0 - Pixels Digital

As a general rule, you have two choices when you're choosing a 3-D–modeling and –rendering program: a rich set of features or a pauper's price (less than $400). But at $399, version 5.0 of Pixels Digital's Pixels 3D breaks that rule. Similar to low-end 3-D programs such as Eovia's Carrara Studio (; November 2002), Pixels 3D has a user-friendly interface that gives you easy access to tools and features ... read more at Macworld

SketchUp 3.0 - @Last Software

We thought that the 3-D–drawing program SketchUp 2.2 (; June 2003) was great because it made 3-D modeling accessible to everyone. However, we noted some missing features -- such as animation export, better transparency controls, and the ability to add text and dimensions. SketchUp 3.0 addresses each concern -- and then some ... read more at Macworld

SketchUp 2.2 - @Last Software

"Fun, Inspiring Program Makes 3-D Available to the Rest of Us - As its name implies, SketchUp is primarily a tool for making a sketch of any kind -- from a design for backyard furniture to a representation of your fantasy house. It allows you to express concepts quickly in 3-D, even if you barely know what CAD is " ... read more at Macworld

ZBrush 1.5 -Pixologic

"If you've ever tried your hand at 3-D modeling, you know that it's a complex process involving weird tools and changing viewpoints. Pixologic's ZBrush 1.55b delivers sophisticated tools to would-be 3-D artists, but it provides them in a form most of us already understand: the paintbrush" ... read more at Macworld

EazyDraw - Dekorra Optics

"Dekorra Optics' EazyDraw is a vector-based drawing application that doesn't know what it wants to be when it grows up. Its name implies that it's an uncomplicated, easy-to-understand tool, but few of its features are obvious or clear in function or performance" ... read more at Macworld

formZ 4.0 - autodessys

"The program formZ, from autodessys, is a reliable, accurate solids and surface modeler and renderer used in architectural design (where it has its most dedicated following), visualization, illustration, and dynamic media. But formZ's fourth edition has been a long time coming " ... read more at Macworld

Painter 8 - Corel

"The program sports a redesigned vertical toolbox that contains all its key drawing and painting tools." ... read more at MacUser UK

Amorphium 3.1 - Electric Image

"Amorphium 3.1 is one of several programs that aims to make 3D graphics more accessible to hobbyists or unfamiliar designers" ... read more at macHOME

Cinema 4D XL 8 - Maxon

"Enter Maxon's Cinema 4D 8 XL, a seriously full-featured 3D software package that adds higher-end modeling, animation, visual effects, and rendering tools to the already pro-caliber Cinema 4D app." ... read more at MacAddict

ArchiCAD 8 - Graphisoft

"There are CAD (computer-aided design) programs to meet the needs of various people, from homeowners who are redesigning their kitchens to professional architects and designers. But make no mistake, ArchiCAD 8 [...] is for professionals only " ... read more at macHOME

WorksWell 2.0 - DrawWell Technologies

"Along with vector-illustration tools, it provides features that can pull data from iTunes, iPhoto, tab delimited text files and other sources" ... read more at macHOME

UZR 3D Professional 1.4 - UZR

"ZR 3D Professional offers a speedy way of generating 3D characters" ... read more at MacUser UK

Freehand MX - Macromedia

"our initial impression was that it was basically a tidied-up version of FreeHand 10. However, our feelings changed dramatically once we explored the new features properly." ... read more at MacUser UK

Carrara 3D Basics - Eovia

"Given its low price and the number of bundled models and textures, Carrara 3D Basics is a good, solid package for those who want to dabble in 3D" ... read more at MacUser UK

Universe 5.0 - Electric Image

"Electric Image's 3-D animation software has been used to produce realistic 3-D animation and special effects for countless films, television shows, and commercials during the past decade, and it's renowned for its rendering quality and speed." ... read more at Macworld

Swift 3D 3.0 - Electric Rain

"Swift 3D is a low-cost program with a single mission: producing Flash animations. In version 3.0, the software takes a modest step toward being a general-purpose 3D tool" ... read more at macHOME

VectorWorks 10 - Nemetschek

"VectorWorks, from the German CAD giant Nemetschek, and formerly known as MiniCAD, is one of the most important programs on the Mac in the field of CAD, architecture and interior design" ... read more at MacUser UK