3DCoat

3DCoat is a commercial 3D modeling, sculpting, and texturing application developed by the Danish-Russian company Pilgway. First released in 2009, it provides a workflow that combines voxel-based sculpting with traditional polygonal modeling, enabling artists to sculpt freely on a voxel space and convert to polygonal meshes as needed. The software is used for character creation, asset production, and texture painting in game, film, and visualization projects.

Core features include voxel sculpting with dynamic topology, polygonal retopology tools, UV mapping and unwrapping, and painting directly on 3D surfaces. It supports texture baking and multi-channel painting, PBR material workflows, layering, and an integrated viewport renderer. Voxel-to-mesh conversion, adaptive remeshing, and Boolean operations on voxel meshes are part of the toolset, supporting iterative sculpting and refinement.

In addition to sculpting and painting, 3DCoat provides workflows for UV optimization, surface detailing, and stencil-based texturing. It emphasizes interoperability within common pipelines by supporting import and export of standard formats and by enabling texture maps and baked outputs suitable for game engines and renderers.

Development and availability: 3DCoat is maintained by Pilgway and has seen multiple major releases that expand its retopology, UV, texturing, and baking capabilities. It runs on Windows and macOS, with a traditional licensing model that includes a paid license and updates, along with trial options for new users.

Reception and use: 3DCoat is regarded as a versatile alternative to other sculpting and texturing tools, valued for its voxel-based workflow, robust painting capabilities, and integrated baking tools. It is used by individual artists as well as studios in games and film production.