Most Popular Japanese 3D Animation Software

Today we are going to talk about Japanese 3D animation software that is being used nowadays in the animation and game industry studios.

The Japanese animation is one of the most consumed types of media in the world today and it is relying on 3D lately more and more, which begs the question:

How do they create these great game cinematics and integrate stunning 3D animations with the 2D animation and the software that is being used?

Our mission here today is to focus on Japanese 3D Animation Software and try to find answers for the question.

Actually, Japanese 3D Animation Software are used in japan depending on the type of production whether it be anime or video games, some studios use western 3D software and some of them use locally developed software, but for the most part, it is similar to what is being used in the united states.

Japanese computer graphic software developers were working on 3D animation software for a long time ago and that was parallel to the development of 3D software technology in the US in the late 80’s and 90’s.

Today the most used 3D software in japan are Maya, Houdini, Zbrush, and Nuke for some of the popular and most known studios.

Maya is a 3D modeling and animation software developed by Autodesk that can both animation and game development studios rely on heavily.

Zbrush is a sculpting software specially used for character creation for complex and intricate details. that usually standard 3D software are not capable of achieving.

Houdini is mostly used for effects because it is equipped with lots of tools to do just that.

Also, Nuke is node-based digital compositing and visual effects application first developed by Digital Domain.

Some other studios are using 3Ds Max, LightWave 3D and even discontinued software like Softimage xsi.

Oldest and Most Popular Japanese 3D Animation Software:

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Metasequoia

Metasequoia, also known as either “Metaseq” or “Meta,” is a 3D modeling program that allows the user to create 3D models, objects, and landscapes.

The software was created by Osamu Mizuno in 1998 and released in 1999. It was originally intended for Japanese users, but has attracted outside users and is now available in English.

Metasequoia is one of two 3D import formats for the software ComiPo, which creates drag and drop comics with 3D objects rendering them to look like 2D.

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Shade 3D

Shade 3D is a 3D modeling, rendering, animation, 3D printing computer program was developed by
E frontier Japan and published by Mirye Software. From 2013 October, the Shade 3D development team formed a new company called Shade3D Co., Ltd. and continued to develop and market the program.

https://shade3d.jp/en/

Shade was first published in Japan in the mid-1980s, making it one of the oldest 3D applications on Mac OS and Windows.

After then, Shade3D Co., Ltd is now handling both Japanese and English version development and worldwide marketing included Japan. Shade 3D has hundreds of thousands of users worldwide.