Personally am more of a 3ds Max person but for an open source program this level of output is totally awesome,

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRsGyueVLvQ[/flash]

More amazing is the fact that it's totally FREE and while i have known that for a long time, i just discovered today that it's a mere 20MB download,  to put this in perspective, 3Ds Max or Maya are an incredible 300 times the size of this program (about 6GB each), Yet it has features like fluid simulation that even people like us having been waiting for in 3DMax all these years ,
How they keep it so small is still amazing me, WOW,

Those who wanna try it out, here's a link,
http://www.blender.org/

damseremie:

Yet it has features like fluid simulation that even people like us having been waiting for in 3DMax all these years ,

Although max seems to lack a native high end fluid dynamics tool on the facade,talented geniuses like allan mckay still manage to command particle flow to behave in anyway they want with astonishing results via scripting. he is now a highly sought special freelancer on many hollywod movies out there like superman returns, blade and even the latest transformers movie. check out his old reel here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OCH23pwC_o.  there are commercial plugins like glu 3d that do fluid dynamics too well. most maya users also rely on commercial plugins like real flow for fluid dynamics. but its really cool that blender is totally free.

oh great i can finally post again after inexplicably being banned for apparently no reason! i wasn't even trying to post when it happened. 

sorry about my little deviation. the video is amazing. its incredible what talented artists can churn out of anything. afterall we have people making wonderful animations from clay frame by frame. i once saw a stop motion clip that had nothing in it but match sticks and matchboxes with the match sticks as people. you could still perceive character and emotions in the leading individual match stick characters. back to the old saying, the artist is the biggest tool. find something u can use, stick to it, master it, and doors shall open before you! i am not sure however about the availability ample top notch learning resources for blender that can rival the others you mentioned(could be wrong but i seem to bump much less into blender tuts as opposed to maya and max that i couldn't evade if i tried). this is very key as we usually have to learn a lot ourselves down here with little chance of learning it on the job or as an intern at an established studio.and the more the tutorials the merrier. also if you are looking to working with other artists in this part of the world blender may not be the best choice as you will barely fine people to work for or with who use it except if you are planning to set up a 3d house or studio and adopt it as your native 3d app. just like blur studios did. many people used to doubt what can be achived with 3ds max in character animation from a cutting edge perspective. many thought it was meant or more suited for archtectual viz and computer game design as most feature animation outfits were done with maya. that capacity is no longer in doubt. check out their old showreel from 2007.

[flash=425,349]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Svu8g6XIrv0?version=3&hl=en_US[/flash]

Welcome back from the silly unexplainable forum-banning bot, i've been a victim MANY times,
Yeah, ur right we always had 3rd party solutions for our fluid solutions like glu3d and realflow (which is really cool by the way),
But that of course that means u gotta learn some other interface as well as the regular import/export challenges which always show up when moving across various software.
Ultimately the big plus is blender is free, light and fast,
As for tutorials, of course the bigger end apps are going to always have a lot more SIMPLY because lots more people use em, But one could also attribuite that to the massive marketing and advertsing campaigns the makers of these programs do, A privelage blender does not have,
All in all, it's still up to the user's dedication and skill,

I must say that I was initially discouraged by Blender's interface and navigation when I first tried it a couple of years back. But now, Blender and I are in a sweet affair. The 2.57 release gives you the option of either using the default Blender navigation or Maya style of navigation. I must say that Blender is getting better with each new release and I have production pipeline/workflow composed of open-sourced softwares like:
: Blender
:Gimp
:Sculptris
Will post some screen shots of WIPs using Blender as soon as I get the permission to.

lookin forward to that.

@xothermik
No worries man. will do that soon.

Discovered an open-source camera tracking application called voodo. what's good about it
is that it that it is tightly integrated with blender.

please does anyone know how to use script in maya, or to load more script on maya,

@jidesp
using mel scripts in maya is a breeze. Coding your own script is fun.
If you will describe what you exactly what you want I am sure there
will be an answer.

Watch The Making of Sintel on youtube.They went through a lot of difficulties making that film that they had to cut the film to about 14 mins but the movie was awesome.
With the artists using Blender for the movie,the software developers were able to add new features and improve on the capabilities of the software from feedback and recomendations by the Sintel Project team.

I am in awe. I first tried blender then ran off with my heels hitting my head, but it seems now more than ever that it is about the artist and not necessary what software.

please my friends,i am an interested dude who loves animation,but cant get the Maya and 3d max software in calabar. Please can any caring person please send these software's to my email @ estivic@yahoo.co.uk

and i promise to reward you with a token.

Thanks as you do so and may God

Bross, pls n pls I need a tranner. I reside in lagos Iyana ipaja axis. Pls get back to ♍ƺ as soon as possible.