| The study of product and industrial design can be | | | | good enough to produce attractive 3D product |
| quite expensive. You have loads of things and | | | | renderings. |
| equipments to buy. Tools such as drawing pencils, | | | | 3. Yafray. Yafray is a free raytracing program. It is |
| markers, stencils, sketch papers are things that you | | | | fully able to produce stunning and photo realistic |
| will need to buy. | | | | renderings. It is a high quality Global Illumination |
| In certain schools the pressure is also strong for | | | | rendering program. To use Yafray, you should have |
| students to get expensive equipments such as Digital | | | | Blender 3D as well. This is because Yafray can be |
| SLR (Single Lens Reflex) cameras. | | | | used from within Blender 3d as an optional rendering |
| As you can see, design education can be pretty | | | | engine. |
| costly. Unless, you are very rich, you can save some | | | | 4. Indigo renderer. This is also a very high quality |
| money by using free alternatives to some expensive | | | | rendering software. The disadvantage of using it is |
| software programs. | | | | that it is very slow to render. As such, you are |
| Below are a list of useful yet free software | | | | advised to have a fast computer with lots of RAM in |
| programs that a product and industrial design student | | | | order to use it decently. |
| can use: | | | | 5. GIMP. Gimp is a free alternative to the Photoshop. |
| 1. Inkscape. This software is a 2D vector drawing | | | | You can use it to do much photo and image editing |
| program. It can be used to produce 2D product | | | | works. |
| illustrations. | | | | 6. Open Office. This is a free alternative to MS office. |
| 2. Blender 3D. This is a free 3D rendering and | | | | Well, these are some of the free programs that a |
| animation program. It is surprisingly power for | | | | budget conscious product design student can use. |
| something that is free. Its inbuilt rendering engine is | | | | Thank you for reading. |