Art of Illusion

Art of Illusion is a free alternative program if you want to create 3D images and models that can be used to create animations from those designs too.

It is written in Java, so one of the advantages of the program is that it can be run on any Operating System.

The standard version includes subdivision surface based modelling tools, skeleton based animation, and a graphical language for designing procedural textures and materials.

Functionalities of the program can be increased with plugins. It counts with very interesting add-ons that will let you design plants and trees, vector render or translators to export files as many different formats.

Creations can be saved as JPEG, PNG and TIFF; animations can be saved as QuickTime.