Blender
When dealing with 3D computer graphics a small handful of names have dominated the landscape. Alias Maya (now owned by Autodesk, what a pity…), 3D Studio MAX and Softimage. Over the years that have a been a handful of small open-source projects that have come and gone but never gained any real credibility in the professional world.
Blender has changed that by offering a number of high level features in an open-source package. With an advanced modeler, rigging capability, animation, rendering and shading, as well as advanced dynamics, particles, fur, fluid simulation and scripting support with the Python language.
