Reference, review and presentation tools

These are the tools around the 3D work: collecting reference, planning with a team, rendering presentation shots, showing finished work and keeping files safe. They matter because reviewers judge your art from your boards, renders and breakdowns, and teams lose work without source control for artists.

For the practice, see gathering and using reference and portfolios. For choosing tools in general, see choosing tools: an overview; for licence types, see software licensing explained.

#Reference boards and image libraries

Tool	Best known for	Platforms	Licence model	Price (as of October 2026)	Free option
PureRef	Compact reference-board app for concept and CG artists; 2.0 added annotations, grouping and GIF support (CG Channel)	Windows 10+, macOS 10.14+, Linux (.deb, .rpm, portable); version 2.1.3 (pureref.com)	Pay what you want for personal use; paid business licences	Personal: preset amounts of $7 and $15 or a custom amount. Small business (up to 3 users): $49 one-time. Business: $10 per seat per month, or $8 per seat per month billed annually	Personal licence, pay what you want
Eagle	Organising large image libraries	Windows, macOS (eagle.cool)	One-time purchase with free lifetime updates	US$34.95 for two devices	—
Allusion	"A tool built for artists, aimed to help you organize your Visual Library" (allusion-app.github.io)	Windows, macOS, Linux	Open source, GPL-3.0 (GitHub)	Free	Free
Kuadro	Opening reference images in many windows and saving layouts as presets (CG Channel)	Windows only	Free download by technical artist Luiz Kruel (as reported in 2015)	Free	Free

#Collaborative boards

Tool	Best known for	Platforms	Licence model	Price (as of October 2026)	Free / education option
Milanote	Visual boards for creative teams: images, notes, links and tasks on a free canvas (milanote.com)	Web, desktop, mobile, iPad; Chrome clipper	Subscription	$9.99 per month billed annually, or $12.50 billed monthly; team plan $49 per month billed annually (milanote.com)	Free with 100 notes, images or links and 10 file uploads
Miro	Collaborative online whiteboard for planning and brainstorming (TechRadar)	Browser, Windows, Mac, iOS, Android	Subscription per member	Starter $8 and Business $20 per member per month, billed yearly; Enterprise custom (miro.com)	Free plan with three editable boards; free for students and staff at accredited institutions

#Rendering and 3D viewers

Tool	Best known for	Platforms	Licence model	Price (as of October 2026)	Free / student option
Marmoset Toolbag	Ray-traced and raster rendering of stills and animation, plus baking and texturing (marmoset.co)	Windows, macOS (see texturing and material software)	Subscription or perpetual (marmoset.co)	Individual: US$18.99 per month, or US$399.00 perpetual (5.x updates). Studio: US$49.99 per seat per month, or US$1,299.00 perpetual per seat	Individual licence covers students; free trial
Marmoset Viewer	Interactive WebGL scenes exported from Toolbag as .mview files (marmoset.co)	Web; embeddable or uploaded to ArtStation	Exported from Toolbag	Included with Toolbag	—
KeyShot Studio	Product-style rendering	—	Subscription (keyshot.com)	Professional $1,299 per user per year; Business $1,599 per user per year; Enterprise custom	14-day trial; EDU $95 per year for full-time students and faculty, learning only
Blender	Rendering in the same free suite you may model in	Windows, macOS, Linux (blender.org)	Free, GNU GPL	Free	Free
Your game engine	Showing the work in its real context	See game engines	See game engines	See game engines	—

Platform	Best known for	Licence model	Price (as of October 2026)	Free tier
ArtStation	Portfolio site strong in game art, concept art and character modeling, with a site builder and store (Creative Bloq); native Marmoset Viewer support (ArtStation Help)	Free tier; paid Plus and Pro	See vendor	Yes; 15 MB .mview limit
Behance	Adobe's creative portfolio network; Pro adds analytics, password-protected projects, 0% platform fees and Adobe Portfolio (Behance Help)	Subscription for Pro	Pro "starting at $9.99/month with an annual commitment", varies by country	See vendor
Sketchfab	Embeddable 3D viewer and editor (Sketchfab Blog)	Subscription for Pro	Pro $15 per month billed yearly ($180 per year); Enterprise custom quote (sketchfab.com)	Basic: 10 uploads a month, 100 MB per model

When ArtStation Plus launched in 2019, it bundled ArtStation Learning courses, a portfolio website builder and blogging tools; Pro added higher earnings on digital sales and Pro analytics (ArtStation Magazine: ArtStation Plus: The First Step Towards Your…). Check current plans on the vendor page.

#Recording, screenshots and video editing

Tool	Best known for	Platforms	Licence model	Price (as of October 2026)
OBS Studio	"Free and open source software for video recording and live streaming" (obsproject.com)	Windows 10 and 11, macOS 13+, Linux	Free and open source	Free
ShareX	Screenshots, GIFs and screen recordings with upload options (Wikipedia)	Windows 10+	Free and open source, GPLv3	Free
ScreenToGif	Recording a screen area, webcam or sketchboard and saving it as a GIF or video (GitHub)	Windows (.NET 9 desktop runtime)	Microsoft Public License	Free
DaVinci Resolve	Editing and grading portfolio videos and breakdowns; the free version handles 8-bit video up to Ultra HD 3840 × 2160 at 60 fps (blackmagicdesign.com)	Mac, Windows, Linux	Free version; paid Studio version adds AI tools, 10-bit and higher resolutions	Studio $295, on sale for $236 on 22 October 2026

Different viewsStatic renders or interactive viewers?

Interactive viewers. Marmoset Viewer and Sketchfab let reviewers orbit the model and inspect it closely (marmoset.co: Marmoset Viewer: Set Up Your Scene; Sketchfab Blog: Sketchfab update: what you need to know now…). ArtStation supports .mview files natively (ArtStation Help: How do I showcase a Marmoset scene?).

Controlled renders and video. Viewers impose limits on lights, shaders and file size (marmoset.co: Marmoset Viewer: Set Up Your Scene; ArtStation Help: How do I showcase a Marmoset scene?; sketchfab.com: Sketchfab plans). Renders and engine captures recorded with OBS and cut in Resolve show the work exactly as you intend (obsproject.com: OBS Studio; blackmagicdesign.com: DaVinci Resolve).

In practice: lead with strong renders or an engine flythrough, then add an interactive viewer for one or two hero assets. See portfolios.

#Source control and collaboration

Game projects are full of large binary files, which plain Git handles badly. These tools version art assets so a team can share work and roll back mistakes. See source control for artists for the concepts.

Tool	Best known for	Licence model	Price (as of October 2026)	Free tier
Perforce P4 (formerly Helix Core)	Centralised version control common in game studios; cloud or on-premises (perforce.com)	Commercial	See vendor	Free for up to 5 users and 20 workspaces
Git LFS	"An open source Git extension for versioning large files", replacing them with text pointers in Git (git-lfs.com)	Open source	Free; storage depends on your Git host	Free
Unity Version Control	Unity's version control, "previously known as Plastic SCM" (Unity Learn)	Usage-based, linked to Unity plans (unity.com)	On-prem seats $38 per seat; storage $0.10/GB from 25 to 100 GB, $0.06/GB above; egress $0.10/GB above 100 GB	Personal plan includes 25 GB storage and 100 GB egress per month ; an older Unity Learn tutorial still describes a three-user, 5 GB free tier
Diversion	Cloud version control for game teams with hard locks and asset reviews on Studio (diversion.dev)	Subscription per user	Pro US$25 and Studio US$35 per user per month; extra storage US$10 per month per 100 GB	Indie: free for the first 5 users (up to 20 users in total), 100 GB, 5 repositories; Education free for up to 10 users
Anchorpoint	Artist-friendly front end that "works with pure Git + extras on top", with LFS cache clean-up (anchorpoint.app)	Subscription per user	Team €25 per user per month billed monthly, or €240 per user per year (€20 a month), excluding VAT; 50% off for indies under €100,000 funding and revenue	Personal plan free for non-commercial use; education €1,999 per year for up to 100 users

#Further reading and watching

Marmoset Viewer: Set Up Your Scene

export and embedding guide for .mview files. Beginner, free.

WebBeginnerFree

How do I showcase a Marmoset scene? (ArtStation)

ArtStation's upload steps and size limits. Beginner, free.

ArticleBeginnerFree

Sketchfab update after Fab launch

what changed for Sketchfab users. Beginner, free.

ArticleBeginnerFree

PureRef 2.0 on CG Channel

features and licence terms of the 2.0 release. Beginner, free.

WebBeginnerFree

Git LFS

the three commands you need to version large files in Git. Beginner, free.

WebBeginnerFree

Set up Unity Version Control

Unity's official walkthrough. Beginner, free.

CourseBeginnerFree

Reference, review and presentation tools

#Reference boards and image libraries

#Collaborative boards

#Rendering and 3D viewers

#Recording, screenshots and video editing

#Source control and collaboration

#Further reading and watching

References

Also consulted

Pages that link here

#Reference boards and image libraries

#Collaborative boards

#Rendering and 3D viewers

#Portfolio hosting and 3D sharing

#Recording, screenshots and video editing

#Source control and collaboration

#Further reading and watching

References

Also consulted

Pages that link here