Blender

user interface of Blender showing

multiple views

If any one were to ask me to give a one sentence synopsis of Blender, I would have to say 'I can't believe this is a freeware program.' What a package for 3d modeling, rendering, animating, rigging and game creation. Believe it or not, this is a free program. All you need to do is devote a vast amount of time to get used to the interface (navigation was a bit tricky for me having been trained in 3D Max, but after a while it becomes easier) and location of the myriad drop-down menus. Luckily, Blender has a vast support area online and in downloadable files to train you through the basics, up to the more complex operations Blender can provide.

MODELING

Blender comes loaded with 3d mesh primitives for you to build from, polygon mesh, NURBS, bezier and b-spline curves, metaballs and font support. The process of building objects is similar to most popular/conventional packages.

RIGGING

Fast skeletal creation with interactive 3d paint for vertex weighting, fast auto skinning, bone layering for group organization. Overall I feel the rigging works as well as the high end software packages that sell for thousands of dollars.

Additional features include UV unwrapping, shader construction, particle systems and much more. One of the hardest areas I found to delve into was the 3d real-time game creation. This part of the Blender options is not for the weak at heart. The good news still boils down to the fact that you are not paying for this fantastic program so go ahead and visit their website and ive it a try.