A few years ago I ran into Blender in search for 3D programs I would enjoy and in that search I found such titans as Maya, 3D Max, and Light Wave as well as Blender. Maya stuck with me as the program of choice simply because it is the most powerful and widely used of them all. Even with Light Wave's superior rendering Maya is still the easiest to use. Or so I thought. Recently I picked Blender back up and downloaded the latest version, 2.40. Yes, it is free and yes it is worth thousands!

Although at first the interface is daunting, to say the least, if you go through the generous guides and tutorials you'll find yourself racing around the 3D space like a pro. Grabbing, scaling, twisting, and moving your objects and invironment like your walking around in there and holding the objects by hand. The shortcut keys are easy to learn and are the most intuitive I've seen yet. Go into edit mode with TAB, use B and MMB to select/deselect vertices, edges, and faces, use E to choose extrude and drag to position, done. The entire interface is highly customizable to fit anyone's work style with the ability to have multi-windows, dragable panels, and your own theme. Take a look at the attachment image at the default interface.

Modeling takes on a whole new feel with mesh subdivisions to create organic models as easily as Rhino 3D or that other high polygon 3D program I can't think of the name for. In any case you'll feel like you've been doing this for years as shapes and forms appear like magic just like you amagined. I myself have only created models from the tutorials but to go back and do them again without the book is simple. And for the extraordinary 3D developer you can create your own tools and customizations with the scripting interface using Python.

The fact that the program is free and open source is only helpful as you can get everything you need to become a professional. Forums, guides, tutorials, add ons, and a huge users documentation explaining everything. Go through this and you will truely be a professional. Best of all for beginners this will cut down the learning curve for Maya and Light Wave. Once you've adapt to Blender and all it has to offer, the others are only weeks away from mastering.

This is not meant to be an exhaustive review of each and every feature as anyone could write an entire novel on. But rather a free invitation into the world of powerful high-end 3D development. Get your free 3D software today at Blender.org. Wether you want to model, texture, light, animate, or create special effects, the cloth, hair, and fluids are there for you. Want to create a world class PC game? It has this too with an amazing engine to handle graphics and dynamics like you never thought possible. Total control down to the models.