Tom Arah shows you the best way to bring some texture into your design work.

Long-term readers will know that I am a big fan and keen advocate of the use of seamless bitmap textures. Such textures play an essential role in the production of 3D work, as we saw again last month, but they can also prove just as useful within 2D bitmap and vector environments...

VERDICT: Piranesi gets the major overhaul of interface and tools that its extraordinary creative power deserves.

Piranesi stands out from all other bitmap editors because it is able to handle material and depth information as well as colour; it might sound a relatively small difference but it unleashes a massive amount of 3D painting power...

RECOMMENDED

VERDICT: Improved interface and drawing capabilities, new photo matching and hand-drawn effects - and it’s still free.

Over the years @Last Software’s SketchUp managed to win itself a small fanbase, particularly among architects, for its valiant attempt to make 3D modelling as simple as 2D drawing...

VERDICT: Builds on the free Google SketchUp with enhanced export options and a new dedicated presentation application.

Based on the impressive feature set of the free Google SketchUp (see separate review), the obvious question is: what more does the commercial Google SketchUp Pro 6 offer to justify its price?

VERDICT: New posing, animation and lip sync capabilities, but Poser 7’s main strengths remain its bundled content and low price.

Creating believable 3D scenes is a major challenge, but to bring them fully to life you really need people to populate them...

RECOMMENDED

VERDICT: Major enhancements to atmospheric and lighting models, import support, rendering options and material and EcoSystem handling.

Creating naturalistic real world scenes is one of the most difficult tasks for a 3D modeller which is where Vue Infinite comes in with its dedicated state-of-the-art capabilities.

Tom Arah pushes the boundaries of 3D with CINEMA 4D and its comprehensive range of add-on modules.

About two and a half years ago I looked at the range of software available for 2D designers wanting to make the move into 3D and concluded that much the best option was MAXON’s CINEMA 4D...

RECOMMENDED

VERDICT: Improved interface, object and layer handling and amazing integrated 3D painting add greatly to CINEMA 4D’s existing power, usability and value.

CINEMA 4D 10 is a heavyweight professional 3D package, but surprisingly simple...