orange and blue 3D rendered shapes

6 Great Places to Find 3D Models for Digital Design

Whether or not you’re creating a private challenge, wanting to reinforce your individual designs, or simply having enjoyable exploring what you are able to do inside graphic design and illustration, there are all the time new methods to enhance your work. 3D illustrations are showing in every single place on web sites, apps, and adverts, and it’s simple so that you can discover them.

You don’t need to be effectively versed in Cinema 4D or Blender to search out or use these 3D fashions. Loads of them are readymade, absolutely customizable, and straightforward to discover ways to create. Listed below are six nice web sites and software program the place you could find 3D fashions.


Screenshot showing Spline 3D premade shapes

Spline is a free design web site that provides premade 3D designs and lets you create 3D fashions and scenes from scratch. You possibly can entry Spline from a browser or obtain the app on Mac, Home windows, or Linux.

For brand new customers, Spline presents a Docs tab with an intensive checklist of how-to’s that can provide help to use Spline effectively. The checklist presents useful data like how one can begin utilizing Spline, understanding 3D design, how one can export your 3D scenes, in addition to explaining supplies and textures to your objects, lighting, and way more.


Screenshot showing Spline 3D hamburger model

You possibly can make the most of the readymade 3D fashions that Spline presents by shopping its library and clicking in your chosen mannequin. Every premade mannequin is customizable in any means, or you need to use it as is. You can too create 3D fashions from scratch; it might take some experimentation, however that’s the place the enjoyable is. You possibly can view your fashions from totally different view views to grasp their full 3D form whereas creating them.

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Spline’s export choices aren’t the standard ones you have a tendency to search out elsewhere; you possibly can export as a Public URL, WebContent, JPG, PNG, WebM, GIF, MP4, GLTF, and spline.


Screenshot of Shapefest library of 3D design assets

Most of Shapefest’s property are provided with a business license included, permitting you to make use of the 3D fashions for no matter design goal you’ve–offering you’re not promoting them for additional use.

Since Shapefest is barely a library of 3D fashions, there’s not a lot data on how one can use them from the web site. The beauty of that, although, is that you could import them into your program of selection, so that you don’t must study new software program to work with these 3D fashions.

Select your 3D pack of icons, letters, palms, or no matter else, and also you’ll get an e-mail with a PNG obtain. To vary the colours of the Shapefest PNGs, you’ll want to make use of raster-based software program, like Photoshop, or you need to use them precisely as they’re in different software program to incorporate them in internet designs or different illustrations.


Screenshot showing Adobe Illustrator 3D and Materials tool

Adobe Illustrator is a staple program in nearly each graphic artist’s or illustrator’s software bag. Due to this fact, its 3D and Supplies software is a simple ability to study once you already know this system. Design regular vectors utilizing shapes and the pen software, and switch every form right into a 3D model utilizing the 3D and Supplies choice within the Results panel.

The software presents various kinds of 3D extrusion (like revolved 3D or rounded edges), totally different supplies your 3D object can tackle, and totally different lighting setups. There are such a lot of methods to experiment with this software, the probabilities are as countless as your ability stage.

4. Procreate 3D


Screenshot of Procreate 3D library

Whereas Procreate for iPad stays a 2D creation software, a latest replace now presents the flexibility to edit 3D property. Though you can’t create the 3D fashions in Procreate, it does present a choose few for you, resembling sun shades, curler skates, a vase, and so forth. You can too import 3D fashions from one other software program that you could edit in Procreate to make use of in your designs.


Screenshot showing Procreate 3D asset changed in color using layers

Modifying the Procreate 3D fashions works equally to the way you’d paint in 2D utilizing the software program. You should use all the identical brushes, colours, and layers as with 2D, solely now they have an effect on how a 3D object will look and the way colours and textures wrap across the premade mannequin realistically.

It’s enjoyable to mess around with it. Hopefully Procreate will add extra choices to the 3D function, so you can begin creating your individual 3D property fairly than enhancing and portray pre-existing ones.


Screenshot showing Vectary Figma plugin

If you happen to already use the Figma internet design software, then you definitely possible already learn about its many plugin choices. A lot of Figma’s plugins embrace common icons for easy and straightforward UX and UI design, however you too can entry illustrations, gradient packages, and better of all, 3D fashions and property.

To entry these plugins, go to the Neighborhood tab and search “3D” within the search bar. You’ll be introduced with a plethora of plugin choices, together with how steadily they’re downloaded by different customers, so you possibly can gauge their recognition and high quality.

A number of Figma plugins we expect are nice to make use of are Vectary 3D Elements for a variety of 3D shapes and property, Clay Mockups 3D which presents gadget mockups in a enjoyable 3D kind to your designs, and Handy Hand’s (Community) that provides nice human hand 3D property to humanize your design work.

If you happen to don’t already use Figma, the excellent news is that plenty of Figma plugins are additionally out there for Adobe or Sketch, so you possibly can combine these 3D plugins along with your present workflow in your most popular program.


Screenshot showing Lottiefiles' 3d animation library

LottieFiles is a web site and plugin that provides its personal file sort: Lottie. Though they don’t completely provide 3D property, it boasts a big 3D and 2D animation library. It is one of many uncommon locations to search out 3D animations, fairly than merely illustrations.

Lottie is a smaller, larger high quality file sort that’s seen an increasing number of inside internet, app, video, and social design. Adobe After Results, and some different packages, can be utilized to create and edit Lottie recordsdata.

You possibly can obtain LottieFiles’ Neighborhood-made animations utilizing plugins with Adobe or Figma, or discover them on the web site. If you happen to can’t discover what you want premade, you possibly can attempt your hand at creating your individual Lottie utilizing After Results and the LottieFiles plugin.

LottieFiles has created a possibility for designers and creators to interact with this new file sort, however if you happen to’re not fairly able to study the software program to make these recordsdata, there are a number of different plugins, so you need to use different creators’ 3D (and 2D) animations.

Take Your 3D Designs to the Subsequent Stage

With these six nice instruments for 3D fashions and property, you’ll push your creativity to the following stage. With a mixture of readymade designs or absolutely customizable choices, you possibly can discover the most effective methods to implement 3D designs into your artistic workflow. Whereas a lot of the choices are static 3D illustrations, with some experimentation, you possibly can create animations or different enjoyable issues utilizing these property.



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