Top Free 3D Character Creators Online in 2024: 5 Best Picks

As 3D characters become increasingly important in games, animations, VR, and social applications, there’s a rising demand for a 3D character creator that does not require high prices or professional skills. Are you also looking for a tool to design a unique 3D character by yourself? The good news is that this article will explore the 5 best 3D character creators online for free in 2024, and introduce their features in detail to help you easily choose the most suitable tool. Let’s get started!

Top 1. Hero Forge

Best for: Create 3D character miniatures

If you want to bring your favorite RPG characters to life, then Hero Forge is an option worth exploring. It provides a 3D character creator online that can help you easily create highly detailed 3D models. Also, with its user-friendly interface, you can easily select different races, poses, facial features, clothing, weapons, and accessories to create a truly personalized miniature.

Moreover, it is completely free to use. If you want more advanced features like scene creation, HD character portraits, and decal assembly, you can also subscribe to Hero Forge Pro. Not only that, Hero Forge provides a one-stop 3D printing service. After completing the 3D character creation, you can click the “Buy” button to add it to your shopping cart and choose from a variety of materials and options, including plastic, premium plastic, colored plastic, and colored stands. Of course, you can also purchase the 3D printable STL file for $7.99 and print it yourself.

However, it’s important to note that this tool currently lacks 3D sculpting tools for making more detailed adjustments to the character. Despite this limitation, Hero Forge’s powerful features and convenient services still make it an attractive choice for creating 3D character miniatures.

Features:

• Offer a 3D character creator online for free to create RPG miniatures.
• Feature an intuitive and user-friendly interface, making it easy to get started.
• Provide a vast library of custom assets from species to pose.
• Support high-quality 3D character printing services.
• Effortlessly share created 3D characters with others online.

Top 2. Ready Player Me

Best for: Create 3D characters for Metaverse, games, and apps.

If you are looking for a completely free 3D character creator online, you can consider Ready Player Me. It’s a cross-platform 3D avatar creation platform that was officially launched in 2020, letting you create personalized 3D characters for games, applications, and social media platforms.

Moreover, with its wealth of preset options including skin color, facial features, hairstyles, and clothing, you can easily create a unique 3D character that completely matches your preference, with a few clicks. Even better, it supports 360-degree preview in real-time to let you further perfect your 3D character.

Additionally, this powerful tool also offers SDKs that can seamlessly integrate with popular platforms like VRChat, Fortnite, Roblox, Zepeto, TikTok, Discord, and Twitter, enabling you to link your 3D avatar to your social media accounts and use it for various online activities, such as virtual meetings and live broadcasts. Alternatively, you can export 3D characters to various formats, such as GLB and PNG, to meet diverse usage needs.

Features:

• Offer a completely free 3D character creator online, suitable for creating avatars for Metaverse.
• Provide open-source SDKs for Unity, Unreal Engine, and various web-based applications.
• Create and customize a unique 3D character with thousands of pre-made items.
• Deliver a simple creative process with just a few clicks.
• Export created avatars in GLB, PNG, and JPG files for various needs.
• Support plug-ins and extensions to improve creating features.

Top 3. Avaturn

Best for: Create lifelike 3D characters

Avaturn is a powerful online tool that comes with a built-in generative AI to transform your 2D selfie into a highly detailed 3D character that resembles you, without needing any professional skills. Moreover, it boasts 10,000 customizable options, which can easily personalize a 3D avatar that reflects your style in real time.

Also, it is worth mentioning that this online 3D character creator provides avatar animation features for realistic movements and expressions, making it suitable for gaming, live streaming, virtual meetings, and more.

However, to ensure a more realistic 3D character, Avaturn requires users to upload photos with real human faces, potentially raising privacy and security concerns from many users. Additionally, limitations exist on the free version of Avaturn. For more features, a Pro version subscription is required starting at $800 per month, including up to 6,000 avatars and additional features.

Features:

• Offer a 3D character creator for free for unlimited avatars and export.
• Convert 2D selfies to lifelike personal 3D avatars using generative AI.
• Provide over 10,000 customization options like body types, hairstyles, clothes, and accessories.
• Seamlessly integrate 3D characters into Blender, Unity, Unreal Engine, Maya, Cinema4D, etc via GLB files.
• Create animating 3D avatars with a standard humanoid body rig, ARKit blendshapes, and visemes.

Top 4. Artguru

Best for: Create AI-powered 3D character arts

Artguru is a free online 3D character creator powered by leading AI. You can create realistic 3D character images, including humans, animals, or fantasy creatures, by simply providing a brief text description. In addition, it also provides a variety of style presets, such as anime, cartoon, fantasy 3D, etc., to meet your vision and project needs. Whether you are working on video games, animations, or VR projects, Artguru is an ideal helper to streamline your design workflow.

Even better, as a free user, you can get 5 free credits per day, each credit allows one image to be generated. In this way, you can effortlessly create 3D characters on Artguru for free. If you need more credits, you can also upgrade to a premium plan or wait 24 hours for your free credits to refresh.

However, it should be noted that Artguru’s AI generation is relatively slow, usually taking forty or fifty seconds to complete. Also, the generated images are watermarked and require payment for removal.

Features:

• Offer an anime 3D character creator online for free.
• Create unique 3D characters in two ways – text-to-art and photo-to-art.
• Generate a realistic 3D character avatar that captures your facial features by using your selfies.
• Provide flexible pricing plans to match your budget, from free to subscriptions starting at $9.9/month.
• Support commercial purposes, allowing users to use created 3D characters in various projects freely.

Top 5. Fotor 3D Character Creator

Best for: Create Anime 3D characters

If you’re looking for a 3D anime character creator online for free, Fotor 3D Character Creator can provide a solution. This AI-powered tool can not only convert 2D photos into 3D characters but also automatically generate 3D-style flat images with corresponding features and styles based on your input text descriptions, covering various types such as characters, animals, fantasy creatures, etc.

Even better, it also comes with a photo editor that allows you to adjust the images freely according to your needs. This means that you can give full play to your imagination and create a unique 3D character easily.

However, compared to other dedicated 3D character creator options, Fotor 3D Character Creator has some limitations. For example, you can’t manipulate the 3D character’s facial expression in real time or preview your creation in 360 degrees. Moreover, free users also have a limited number of generations (each costing 2 credits). In this case, you will need to upgrade to a premium plan  (starting at $8.99) or purchase credits (starting at $19.99) for more options.

Overall, Fotor 3D Character Creator is a powerful and easy-to-use platform that is perfect for users who need to quickly create personalized 3D characters.

Features:

• AI-powered 3D character creator online for free.
• Provide various character styles such as digital art, photo, comic, etc.
• Generate high-quality 3D characters based on textual prompts of your character’s appearance, style, etc.
• Offer highly customizable anime character options to match various needs.
• Create a batch of anime 3D characters in seconds, saving you time and effort.
• Excel in a user-friendly interface, making it easy to access, even for those with no prior design experience.

FAQs About 3D Character Creators Online Free

How to Create a 3D Avatar for Free?

There are many free online 3D avatar generators available that can help you create a personalized 3D avatar with ease. Previously mentioned tools such as Avaturn and Fotor 3D Character Creator can also be helpful. Here, we will use Avaturn as an example to show you in detail how to create a 3D avatar for free.

Step 1. Visit the Avaturn website, and hit the “CREATE AVATAR” button in the main interface.

Step 2. Scan the QR code with your phone, then follow the on-screen instructions to upload three pictures of your face from different angles (front, right, left) to Avaturn.

Step 3. Customize the body type, skin tones, clothes, accessories, and more to match your needs.

Step 4. Generate your lifelike 3D avatar for free.

Can These 3D Character Creators Integrate with Other Software or Platforms?

Yes, these online 3D character creators offer varying integration capabilities. HereForge, Ready Player Me, and Avaturn support exporting 3D files, allowing you to open them in other 3D character modeling software for further editing and customization. In addition, Ready Player Me and Avaturn also cater to developers by providing open-source SDKs compatible with web-based stacks like Unity and Unreal Engine. These tools also come with detailed guides and examples to help easily integrate these 3D character creators into your applications or games.

On the other hand, Artguru and Fotor 3D Character Creator focus mainly on generating 3D character images, which can be directly used in graphic design software. This makes them more suitable for quickly creating character images for social media or graphic design work.

Conclusion

To help you make an informed decision on the best 3D character creator online for free, here’s a quick comparison of these 5 options.

These free online 3D character creator tools cater to various needs, whether you’re a game developer, art hobbyist, or simply looking to spice up your social media presence.

• For 3D printing requirements, HeroForge stands out as the top choice. It can generate STL files for printing and even provides a one-stop 3D printing service for physical miniatures.
• For creating a 3D avatar for virtual worlds like the Metaverse, Ready Player Me and Avaturn are both good options.
• If you simply want to quickly generate eye-catching 3D character pictures for social media posts, consider Artguru and Fotor 3D Character Creator.

Now, choose the tool that best suits your needs and start your creative journey!