Loving art, wanting to make art, but being unable to draw a straight line even with the help of ruler is a tough place to be. And that is where I found myself many years ago. So I turned to tech, and over the years I have tried all sorts of software to scratch that art itch. This is the first render I did in POV Ray:<image here> I eventually came across a free software package called Blender. In the many years since then, Blender has grown to rival professional (expensive) software such as 3D Studio Max and Maya.
Blender has actually been used to create the professional movie Next Gen (on Netflix!). Click here to view a talk by Next Gen's creator Jeff Bell at a Blender Conference.
Blender is 100% free. No subscription, no fee! And there are so many high quality tutorials available on YouTube, wiki pages, Community Sites (https://blender.stackexchange.com/; https://www.artstation.com/learning/blender; https://blenderartists.org/), both free and for purchase. Everything from hour long fully immersive to 3 mins on a specific function.
If you are interested in the industry or just want to mess around with a really cool idea, banging around in your head, I cannot recommend Blender strongly enough. Beyond the obvious modelling, and the render engines, it also includes a Sculpting suite, a Compositor, Animation and Rigging tools, Grease Pencil art, a Video Editor and more. If it sounds overwhelming, it really isn't. Each set of functionality is self contained and straightforward to use. My friend, Mike, uses it to simply edit together home movies - no rendering at all. The community is huge, helpful, welcoming, and prolific. There is even Blender Studio where you can volunteer time to help create the next Blender Open Movie.
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