There are plenty on 3D applications for Mac. Most of them seem to be a “jack of all trades, master of few” kind of application. They all have a lot of great features, but they don’t focus on one particular feature that would set them apart from the other 3D programs.
This is not the case with Aurora 3DMaker ($29.99, App Store Link). Developed by Aurora 3D Software, who also develop 3D presentation and animation software, Aurora 3D Text And Logo Maker specializes in just that, creating 3D text, logos, and graphics.
Aurora 3DMaker is made simple so anyone can jump in and start creating, even if you have little to no experience with 3D applications. When creating 3D text, there are many options to choose from including font, color, style, lighting, and animation.
There are over 60 type fonts to choose from, and you can also use your own font that’s not included in Aurora 3D, and it works just fine. You can also import 3D files from other application, including .obj, .3ds, .blend, and .ms3d among others from Maya, 3DS Max, Cinema 4D, etc. You can export a file from Aurora 3DMaker as a .m3d, or as an image, including JPG, PNG, TIFF, etc.
Aurora 3DMaker also features 10+ animated effects. The animations look great. They’re simple, yet effective and they are especially fitting as far as the length of the animation goes for text, logos, and titles, as they should be. You can also animate lighting which was fairly easy to accomplish. If you can animate the lighting or text, you should be able to animate the other with no problem. 3D Maker also includes over 80 object styles and over 3000 symbols. You can also import svg symbols from Photoshop and Illustrator among other programs.
There are more than 50 professional project templates, which for the most part save you time, especially when adding textures. Since the textures are already in the templates, unlike some other 3D applications, this will save you a good amount of time when managing your workload.
There are a decent number of textures, so you have a wide variety to choose from. Textures included are glass, metal, plastic, mixing, deformation textures, and reflection. The textures are very easy to implement into your text or logo, although I wasn’t able to adjust the bitmap of the texture after I applied it to the text.
Aurora 3DMaker is a solid application for anyone just starting out and experimenting with 3d to someone who may be an expert. It has a lot to offer and can help you accomplish a lot of work in a short amount of time. For anyone who creates more 3d than 2d text, logos, buttons, titles, and graphics. This is a great application.
With the ability to export to a numerous amount of applications such as Photoshop, Illustrator, Premiere, iMovie, Final Cut, and more, Aurora 3D is as compatible with other Mac apps as iLife or iWork applications are compatible with each other. If you’re only looking to use 3d to create text or logos, Aurora 3DMaker is the best application to use for the great value of what it’s worth.
Price: ($29.99, App Store Link)
Pros:
- Easy to use
- Over 80 object styles
- More than 10 different animation effects
Cons:
- Only 3D format I was able to export in is .m3d
