">Video Link Blender gets a lot of heat from "pros", but a lot of people in Europe are using Blender for teaching and other things. I personally like it more than 3dsmax. Anyway, this isn't to say use Blender, but to say, all these tools produce equal quality. And Blender is free and produces good quality. This actually made the cover of 3D World magazine as well. If you like animation shorts, "Elephants Dream" is an awesome one also done in blender.