(Updated!) Top 12 Products Under $20
**This article is outdated. To see all the best new products for sale now, check out the Blender Market home page.**
A few weeks ago, we looked at the best Blender Market products under $10. Because of the success of this post, we are revisiting the topic of Blender shopping on a budget - this time, our cut-off is $20. Here are the 10 best products the Market has to offer for the price of three Chipotle burritos.
Realistic Nature Asset Pack - Beautiful Nature ($10)
In a collaboration between Jerry Perkins and his other Blender buddies, a tool was created with a single goal: to enable you to model fast, fluid and without any compromise to quality. All this without menus, panels, and constant tweaks. How did the so-called "Team CSharp" pull it off? They created Hard Ops 007 to assist you in creating finer surfaces. In the words of Stephen Deutsch, a Hard Ops oo7 user: "This gave a brilliant acceleration to my workflow and simplify how I work, with almost a hard model sculpting process based on booleans! Especially for all things you want to cut nicely into whatever surface this, is brilliant and takes away all your subsurf headaches from the past." Try Hard Ops 007 for yourself...and you'll never go back.
Snap Utilities - Work with Precise Measurements ($19.99)
This neat addon provides you with a quick and easy way to model with architectural precision. Perfect for modeling houses, furniture and equipment, Snap Utilities implements three tools for editing objects: Line, Move and Rotate. Line creates edges of precise length and direction, Move allows you to specify a start and endpoint of movement, and Rotate lets you set an axis of rotation for an object. For any type of work involving precise measurements and high precision, this should be your go-to tool. Duarte Ramos, a Snap Utilities user, has called this addon an "absolutely great tool, a real step forward for Blender in terms of usability, and a must-have for precision modeling." Give it a go and see if you agree!
Easy Game - Turbocharge your Game Development ($19)
Consisting of 2 tools, Easy Game is here to power up the way you use the Blender Game Engine. Made up of Easy Material and Easy Asset, this super pack will help you create materials and game assets quickly and with ease. Easy Material creates photorealistic materials without the need to tweak materials and textures while Easy Asset provides pre-built, fully configurable common game assets that can be loaded in with just one click. Fully configurable and easy to use, these two tools will help you start your game project in super speed - and cost less than twenty bucks.
Studio Scene Kit Lite - Bask Your Scene in Stunning Light ($14.99)
Designed to give you a selection of ready-made, high-quality lighting scenes, Studio Scene Kit Lite is an incredibly efficient tool, making beautiful lighting for your models only a few clicks away. Simply choose from a library of unique lighting scenes and apply it to your scene. Done! The Lite version includes 10+ high-quality lighting scene setups, 7 assets models and documentation. If you're looking for professional light on a budget, look no further: at $14.99 the Studio Scene Kit Light is a serious win.
eLinker - Linking Groups Made Easy ($19.95)
With tried & tested worfklow that maximizes efficiency, eLinker takes the pain out of linking elements to a scene. Making it easy to link characters, props and more to your scene, eLinker allows you to achieve it with just a few clicks and without browsing files. Using linked elements, you can keep your files clean, lightweight and manageable while also getting rid of repetitive processes. With free lifetime upgrades and a part of the proceeds going to the Blender Development Fund, eLinker is as awesome as it is affordable.
IK-Text Effects - Animate 3D Text ($14.99)
IK-Text Effects is the fastest way to animate 3D text in Blender. Without math or key frames, IK-Text Effects allows you to build complex font animation: all you need to do is apply your favorite effect. With 36 interpolation modes, random transformation, wiggle function and an option to use custom font, IK-Text Effect will speed up your workflow and even let you auto-loop your animation. For just under fifteen bucks, it is yours to play with and have fun.
Asset Management - Organize Your Assets ($20)
Landing right on our $20 mark, the Asset Management tool allows you to manage your asset library and add assets directly into Blender. You can create automatic thumbnails to know exactly what asset you are selecting - quickly and easily. Once saved, you can select the asset and place it in your scene. If you decide to keep your assets neat and organize with the Asset Management tool, you also get 2 bonuses: a free pack of bolts and screws, plus a pack of 48 IES lights.
BakeTool - The Ultimate Bake Solution ($14.95)
Created by Cogumelo Softworks, a studio from Brazil, the BakeTool aims to redesign the way Blender baking works with an "easier and more coherent workflow." What does this mean exactly? BakeTools allows you to bake assets or scenes in a fast and safe way with its multi-render solution that doesn't mess up your materials, scenes or objects. Just set all your objects, devices, sizes and samples and bake everything at once, adding objects that you want to bake to the list. Then, see the progress in your viewport with the BakeTool's interactive report system. With lots of other neat functions like Bake to Target or Pack UV Space Function, the BakeTool is a real powerhouse; and it costs less than two tickets to the movies.
Blender Chair Creator - When You Need a Sit Down ($14.99)
The name says it all: this tool allows you to create chair models, selecting from 40 different elements and 4 sets of materials. The process is easy, quick and practical. By combining the elements and materials available, you can generate up to 10,000 different chairs - enough to fit any scene you might be working on. Decide what type of back, seat, arms, and legs your chair will have, then choose from different types of wood, leather, fabric or plastic. Blender Chair Creator comes with studio setup so you can immediately render a model and see how it looks. Easy, quick - and at just under fifteen bucks, it's cheaper than IKEA.
Render+ - Advanced Rendering for Blender ($20)
Render+ is a Blender addon that makes rendering easier and more powerful. Created with the goal to automate workflow and remove the need to tweak too many settings, Render+ is designed to put as much power in your hands with the simplest interface possible. The Stats feature gives you a clear overview of the estimated remaining render time and other useful data like the slowest and fastest frame. Batch Rendering allows you to set up your renders and start them with one click, with an easy interface to setup render jobs for any scene and override the camera, render layer, frames and size. The Notifications feature will let you know when your render status changes and can even power off your computer when it's all done. This is a powerful tool with more fun and practical tricks up its sleeve. It will save you so much time, you will have made its cost ($20) back before you know it.
Gaffer - Light Manager ($17.95)
Gaffer is a Blender add-on that helps you light your scenes by presenting you with all your lamp settings in one simple panel. Praised for its ease of use, Gaffer gives you full control of the most common lamp settings. Showing you only the settings relevant for each individual light, it will guide you in setting the perfect lighting for your scene and adjust what is displayed as you turn things on and off. You can view only the very basic controls such as strength, color, and visibility or expand each light to show more controls like size, diffuse/specular influence, Multiple Importance Sampling and more. Created by Greg Zaal who is a professional lighting artist, Gaffer gives you more control over light than you ever thought possible in Blender. It will also help you get a clear understanding of how various lighting settings work - and your scene will look better than ever.
So there they are - our favorite products costing $20 or less! Did we miss any awesome products that cost just $20 or less? Let us know of any other bargains you have found in the depths of the Market.