Blender (free) is pretty daunting to someone who's never used 3D modeling or animation software. For me, using Blender 2.60a was somewhat like having to know exactly how my car works before I can drive it: a no-brainer for some people, but it's not for everyone. One Blender feature that I wish more programs incorporated is the addition of hitting the + key on the number pad while in the save dialog

It is a feature rich platform for my 3D modeling and video editing. It is opensource and popular and well supported.

Blender is the most powerful application for rendering. I have used blnder for 3D modeling and also for animation. The animation tools are complets. you can do everything and there is a big community which is helpful for animate what you are expecting. Th ebest think is that blender is totally a creattive commons license.