What is Metasequoia?
Metasequoia is a 3D modeling and rendering program first released in 1997 by Tetraface Inc. It is aimed at providing an easy to use and intuitive 3D content creation tool for beginners, while also providing advanced features for experienced users.
The modeling interface uses a simple layout and set of polygon/subdivision surface modeling tools that are easy to grasp for new users. It supports common basic shapes, boolean operations, tapering, bending, and advanced tools like edge extrusion and bridge features.
For rendering, Metasequoia focuses on non-photorealistic rendering features like toon shading and line drawing generation. It comes bundled with dozens of NPR presets. But it can also produce photorealistic results through its ray tracing engine and material system supporting textures, bump maps, reflections and more.
Other notable features include skeleton based animation, hypervisor for working across multiple 3D views, and extensions for added functionality. File import/export is supported for common 3D formats like OBJ, DXF, STL and PNG/JPEG.
While less popular outside Japan compared to giants like Blender or 3ds Max, Metasequoia offers a unique, easy to use modeling and NPR styled rendering package for Windows.
SketchUp, Blender, Sketchfab, Autodesk Maya, Autodesk 3ds Max, Cinema 4D, Fragmentarium, picoCAD, Assetforge, Bforartists, VoidWorld are some alternatives to Metasequoia.