A curated list of awesome vfx tools.
| Name | OSS | Free | Link |
|---|---|---|---|
| Blender | Yes | Yes | Site |
| Fabric Engine | No | Depends | Site |
| Houdini | No | Depends | Site |
| Maya | No | Depends | Site |
| Nuke | No | Depends | Site |
| Modo | No | No | Site |
| Katana | No | No | Site |
| Mari | No | No | Site |
| Name | OSS | Free | Link |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fusion | No | Yes | Site |
| Krita | Yes | Yes | Site |
| Mischief | No | No | Site |
| Natron | GNU | Yes | Site |
| OpenToonz | BSD3 | Yes | Source |
| Name | OSS | Free | Link |
|---|---|---|---|
| GoDot | MIT | Yes | Site Source |
| Unity | No | Depends | Site |
| Unreal Engine | Yes | Depends | Site |
| Name | OSS | Free | Link |
|---|---|---|---|
| ACES | Yes | Yes | Source |
| Alembic | Yes | Yes | Site Source |
| cross3d | MIT | Yes | Source |
| MaterialX | Apache2 | Yes | SiteSource |
| Open Color IO | Yes | Yes | Site |
| Open Image IO | BSD | Yes | Site Source |
| Open Subdiv | Apache2 | Yes | Site Source |
| Open Timeline IO | Apache2 | Yes | Site Source |
| Qt.py | MIT | Yes | Source |
| USD | Yes | Yes | Source |
| Author Name | Description |
|---|---|
| Cesar Margotta | Prior Rigger, now Software Dev. |
| Chris Offner | Generalist, Maya/Modo/Blender |
| Dhruv Govil | Pipeline Developer, posts a lot about processes and projects. |
| Jonathan Cooper | Game Animator, posts a lot about animation. Nicely laid out side. |
| Marco Giordano | Rigger, Developer. |
| Morgan Loomis | Technical Animator. |
| Ryan Porter | Rigger, does a lot of development and rigging work. |
| Siew Yi Liang | Cinematic TD, posts a lot about rigging tools and development. |
| Steve Theodore | Technical Art, pretty much covers everything. |
| Name | OSS | Free | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| AL_USDMaya | Apache2 | Yes | Animal Logic's USD Plugin for Maya. |
| LumaUSD | ????? | Yes | Plugins for USD. |
| USD Arnold | Yes | Yes | USD schemas, exporters and importers for Arnold renderer. |
| USD QT | Apache2 | Yes | Reusable Qt components for Pixar's USD. |
| USD URI Resolver | Yes | Yes | Pluggable URI ArResolver for USD. |
| Name | OSS | Free | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| AL_USDMaya | Apache2 | Yes | Animal Logic's USD Plugin for Maya |
| Name | OSS | Free | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Blue Pencil | No | No | Sketchpad for Maya |
| KeyFrame MP | No | No | Playblast and Reference Viewer. |
| KeyFrame Pro | No | No | Professional Media playback and review tool. |
| ml_tools | CC4 | Yes | Animation and Rigging tools from Morgan Loomis. |
| pyGhost | ????? | Yes | Ghosting for animators. |
| Tradigitools | BSD3 | Yes | Plugin for Maya (and now Cinema 4D) that promotes a more traditional workflow for animation with digital tools. |
| tweenMachine | Yes, license TBD | Yes | The easiest way to create breakdowns in Maya |
| Name | OSS | Free | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| polySymmetry | MIT | Yes | Maya tool for finding the symmetry of a polygon mesh based on the topology. |
| polyReorder | MIT | Yes | Maya plugin with tools to reorder the vertices on a mesh to match the order of another match. |
| Name | OSS | Free | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| animx | Apache2 | Yes | A project to make it easier for people to use Maya animation in their tools and pipelines. |
| mayaTaskServer | ????? | Yes | A standalone Maya Task Server. |
| maya-alembic-export | LGPLv3 | Yes | Alembic exporting made easier. |
| uExport | ????? | Yes | uExport is a simple tool to automatically export complex characters from Maya to Unreal Engine 4. |
| Name | OSS | Free | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Angular Nodes | MIT | Yes | Library of Maya nodes to do arithmetic on angles without polluting the scene with unitConversion nodes. |
| Array Nodes | MIT | Yes | Set of Maya nodes for operating on arrays of values. |
| Bake Instancer | GPL | Yes | Bake an instancer node to individual animated pieces of geometry. |
| boneToMesh | MIT | Yes | Maya plugin for creating proxy geometry for rigs. |
| Channel Box Plus | GPL | Yes | Add searchability to the channel box attributes. |
| CommandSearch | GPL | Yes | Read all buttons in Maya's native menu and make them searchable and executable. |
| cvShapeInverter | MIT | Yes | A script and deformer that can invert a shape through a deformation chain so the shape can be applied as a front of chain shape. |
| cvWrap | MIT | Yes | A Maya wrap deformer that is faster than Maya's wrap deformer, can be rebounded, has a GPU implementation, and supports inverted front of chain blend shapes. |
| deformerWeightsPlus | ????? | Yes | Fast Maya skinCluter Save/Load. |
| grimIK | GPLv3 | Yes | Non-iterative two-bone IK plugin with Soft IK, IK / FK switching, reversing, and elbow pinning in one node for Autodesk Maya 2016+. |
| maya-capture | MIT | Yes | Playblasting in Maya done right. |
| maya-capture-gui | MIT | Yes | GUI front-end for maya-capture. |
| maya-math-nodes | MIT | Yes | Collection of math nodes for Autodesk Maya |
| maya-pymetanode | MIT | Yes | A simple solution for storing python objects as data on a node in Maya. |
| maya-pulse | MIT | Yes | A rigging framework for Maya. |
| maya-quickmenus | MIT | Yes | A set of marking menus all related to workflow efficiency in Maya. |
| maya-quicksearch | MIT | Yes | A popup-style search box for Maya for quickly finding nodes or commands. |
| maya-resetter | MIT | Yes | A util for easily resetting transform or other node attributes to their defaults in Maya. |
| maya-rmbmenuhook | MIT | Yes | A util for hooking into and extending the right mouse button marking menus in Maya. |
| Mesh Info | GPL | Yes | Query the volume of a mesh and with the node you can query not only the volume but also the surface area of all the faces. |
| mgear | MIT | Yes | Rigging framework for Autodesk Maya. |
| ngSkinTools | No | Depends | ngSkinTools is a skinning plugin for Autodesk Maya, introducing new concepts to character skinning such as layers, any-pose-mirroring, enhanced paint brushes, true smoothing, and more. |
| PySignal | MIT | Yes | A pure Python implementation of the Qt signal system with no QObject dependencies. |
| quatExtras | MIT | Yes | Quaternion utility nodes that are missing from Autodesk Maya's quatNodes plugin. |
| quicklauncher | ?????? | Yes | A minimal Qt based menu to quickly find and execute Maya commands and user scripts. |
| Reorder Attributes | GPL | Yes | Reorder attributes. |
| Retarget Blendshapes | GPL | Yes | Retarget your blendshapes between meshes with the same topology. |
| Simplex Solver | LGPLv3 | Yes | The Simplex Solver is cross-package plugin and tool for dealing with complex blendshape combos in for high-end facial rigs. |
| Shapes | No | No | Easy to use blend shape editing tool providing a unified workflow to create and edit blend shape targets and related dependencies for character articulation. |
| skonverter | ????? | Yes | Simple skin converter for Maya. |
| skinWrangler | Yes | Yes | A skinning tool for Autodesk Maya. |
| Timeline Marker | GPL | Yes | Create coloured markers and comments on top of Maya's native timeline. |
| Name | OSS | Free | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Charcoal Editor | No | No | Professional Maya Scripting. |
| MayaCharm | MIT | Yes | Maya integration for PyCharm. |
| MayaSublime | MIT | Yes | Send selected Python and MEL code snippets from SublimeText to Maya via commandPort |
| Name | Free | Link |
|---|---|---|
| Cult of Rig | Yes | YouTube Twitch Site Calendar |
| Name | Free | Link |
|---|---|---|
| Python for Maya | No | Site |
| Name | OSS | Free | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| connect | No | Yes | Manage Cragl tools. |
| smartRender | No | No | Multithreaded background rendering and super fast feedback for NUKE. |
| smartLook | No | No | Fast look development inside NUKE, Infinite global toolsets. |
| smartMessage | No | No | Instant messenger for NUKE and MAYA. Communicate with other artists, share data and connect locally and world wide. |
| smartLib | No | No | Project and shot management for Nuke. |
| smartShelves | No | No | Manage your node menus including nodes and gizmos in a clever and simple way. |
| smartRecents | No | No | Quickly jump to your recent Nuke projects and keep track of your work |
| Name | OSS | Free | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vray For Fabric | ????? | Yes | A wrapper of the V-Ray App SDK for Fabric Engine. |
| Kraken | BSD3 | Yes | Modular character rigging framework built on top of Fabric Engine. |
| SpliceMaya | BSD3 | Yes | Allows you to make use of the Fabric Core inside of Maya and use KL to perform computations inside of Maya using a custom node. |
| SpliceModo | BSD3 | Yes | Allows you to make use of the Fabric Core inside of Modo and use KL and the Fabric graph to perform computations inside of Modo using a custom Mesh item, a custom Schematic node etc. |
| Name | OSS | Free | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Modo_Popups | ????? | Yes | A collection of plugins featuring a pop-up search field. |
| Modo_ProjectManager | ????? | Yes | Modo 901. Basic Project Managment Kit. |
| Modo_LightBank | MIT | Yes | For Modo 801 Linux. Custom Viewport for accessing light channels. |
| Name | OSS | Free | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| stkMariTools | GPLv3 | Yes | Collection of utilities for Mari. |
| Name | OSS | Free | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| blendergltf | Apache2 | Yes | Addon for Blender that adds the ability to export to the gltf format |