The apps that I have tested out are blender and cinema 4d.
For Cinema 4d when you first open it you will see most of your basic tools on the top of the screen. On the right side, you will see your scene details, and below that are the properties. Cinema 4d does not have a basic scene set up and is blank when you first open it. On the bottom of the live preview is the timeline where you can view materials you have downloaded. This program is similar to blender in the sense that it has its scene on the right side and its tools on the left. The shortcuts are quite different as well as the mouse buttons. This program is paid and so far I have been able to use this program to sculpt and do a simple rendering of characters and items. I would assume blender would have the same feature as well. What stands out about this program over blender is the readily available materials that are searchable through the content browser in the middle of the program which looks like a box. You can drag and drop the material you want and apply it to your object by dropping it directly on the layer.
Animation is interesting in this program, you can view things through the lens of the camera and also get a preview of your render before you download it. I learned how to use a scalable vector graphic and create it as a 3d text by importing it into illustrator and saving it as an illustrator file. It has to be the older version because cinema 4d cannot read the newer version of illustrator. You can also paint the models you sculpt and also deform. All the necessary tools and options are on the top which I like but the scene organization can get confusing when you dabble into skies and formulas. You can use a formula to animate objects to float a certain way on repeat.
For Blender when you first open it up you will be brought to a scene with a basic cube, lighting, and camera. There are tools on the left side and on the top, you will see the different modes. On the right side, you will be able to organize your scene by placing objects in folders. I have not figured out how to color my models yet but this is similar to Cinema 4d as you can scale, rotate and duplicate. What makes this program more unique to me is that you can create low poly quite easily. Cinema4d has options to make text look more interesting by using caps, and the lighting is easy to use but if I want to model low poly I would prefer a blender. Both blender and cinema4d look confusing at first glance, it takes a lot of tutorials to learn both programs in my opinion because so many options are hidden between tiny steps that are easy to miss. But I think Blender is preferable since it’s free and tutorials are readily available as a lot of game devs turn to this program.
