3-D Animation Software

3DCG software is plentiful, but sometimes overly complicated. While many overall packages exist to handle the various stages of 3D work – notably modeling and rendering – there are many specialized packages that handle specific tasks.

POV-Ray is a popular rendering engine. Models are built in another application, but POV-Ray is used for high-quality output.

DAZ Studio is an application for posing and rendering 3D models, chiefly the realistic human models that DAZ offers. The software is offered as a free download for Mac and PC users.

Maya is the commercial giant in the world of 3D, and they offer a free "Personal Learning Edition" for students and beginners.

Blender is the undisputed king of open-source 3D programs, with a lively, active development community and a feature-rich, stable version for practically any platform.

Pixie is an "open-source Renderman," essentially the FOSS version of the popular Renderman rendering engine used by many professional studios, like Pixar (who developed Renderman) and Disney.

Aqsis is another Renderman-based rendering engine, with an emphasis on photorealistic lighting and rendering.

Art of Illusion is a Java-based 3D modeler.

Terragen is freeware that can be used to make realistic looking landscapes and environments in 3D.

OpenFX has been in development since 1999, so its feature-set is rather developed. But it is Windows-only.