__**VFX TOOLS**__

:white_circle: **Modelling Software -** *Tools for standard "box modelling" workflows, great for hard surface assets*

Industry standard:
> - **Autodesk Maya**
> - **Autodesk 3DS Max**

Other good modelling software:
> - **Blender** - Free software, the underdog right now, has lots of cool features but also missing some extremely crucial industry standard methods, definitely making big moves recently though.
> - **Cinema 4D** - Used more in "design" work and motion graphics. Great for quick lighting and product shots, not used much for standard VFX workflows. Great, easy-to-use modelling tools though.

Wildcards:
> - **Houdini** - Used for procedural modelling, great for things like landscapes, cities or complex systems to create procedural buildings and layouts
> - **Zbrush** - Primarily a sculpting software but has some unique "box modelling" tools for more hard surface workflows

:white_circle: **Sculpting Software -** *Tools for "digital sculpting", great for organic models*

Industry standard:
> - **Zbrush**

Other good sculpting software:
> - **Autodesk Mudbox**

Wildcards:
> - **Blender** - Added some cool sculpting tools recently, pretty solid.
> - **Autodesk Maya** - Surprisingly has some sculpting functionality, it's not great though.

:white_circle: **Texturing Software -** *For texturing assets*

Industry standard:
> - **Substance Painter**
> - **Mari**

Wildcards:
> - **Substance Designer** - This software is designed to procedurally create seamless textures to be used in other texturing packages BUT it can actually be used to procedurally texture assets directly. Pacific rim used this software to texture the giant robots.

:white_circle: **Animation Software -** *Tools for keyframe animation*

Industry standard:
> - **Autodesk Maya**

Wildcards:
> - **Blender** - Has keyframe animation tools.

:white_circle: **CFX Software -** *For doing dynamics, grooming, physics and simulation. Think hair, cloth, muscle and liquid simulation.*

Industry standard:
> - **Houdini** - Pretty much does it all.
> - **Ziva Dynamics** - Really great muscle simulation.
> - **Marvelous Designer** - Really great cloth simulation and "sewing" system for modelling clothing.

:white_circle: **FX Software -** *Explosions, fire, particles, fluids, destruction and everything else*

Industry standard:
> - **Houdini**

Wildcards:
> - **Blender** - Has some solid physics tools.
> - **Autodesk Maya** - Has physics tools but they aren't the best.

:white_circle: **Compositing Software -** *For compositing renders and footage. For example putting CG spiderman into a live action plate/ piece of footage.*

Industry standard:
> - **Foundry Nuke**

Wildcards:
> - **After Effects** - Not really used too commonly in the industry for big VFX productions but has it's place, for example I used it to create an LED animated robot face for an Ikea ad.

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