Blender 2.62

[Earth]

Blender is the free open source 3D content creation suite, available for all major operating systems under the GNU General Public License.

Blender.org Homepage

Must see! Art Gallery

Download Blender

[bogdan]

Quite good. Here-s a short movie done with blender: link.

[McLovin]

Blender is an integrated application that enables the creation of a broad range of 2D and 3D content. Blender provides a broad spectrum of modelling, texturing, lighting, animation and video post-processing functionality in one package. Through it's open architecture, Blender provides cross-platform interoperability, extensibility, an incredibly small footprint, and a tightly integrated work flow. Blender is one of the most popular Open Source 3D graphics application in the world.

Key Features:

• Fully integrated creation suite, offering a broad range of essential tools for the creation of 3D content, including modeling, uv-mapping, texturing, rigging, skinning, animation, particle and other simulation, scripting, rendering, compositing, post-production, and game creation;
• Cross platform, with OpenGL uniform GUI on all platforms, ready to use for all versions of Windows (98, NT, 2000, XP), Linux, OS X, FreeBSD, Irix, Sun and numerous other operating systems;
• High quality 3D architecture enabling fast and efficient creation work-flow;
• More than 200,000 downloads of each release (users) worldwide;
• User community support by forums for questions, answers, and critique at http://BlenderArtists.org and news services at http://BlenderNation.com;
• Small executable size, easy distribution.
  

Change Log - Link.

• Cycles Render Engine
• Motion Tracking
• UV Tools
• "Carve" Booleans
• Remesh modifier
• Game Engine
• Collada
• Python API
• Add-ons
• Bug fixes
  

Download.

[McLovin]

Quote:Update:
- BMesh
- Sculpt Hiding
- Cycles Render
- Motion Tracker
- Addons
- Bug fixes
- More Features

Sources.

[McLovin]

Quote:Update:
- This release was targeted at improving Blender for the Mango open movie project, along with integrating branches and patches from the past years.
- The focus was on creating a full VFX pipeline, with improved motion tracking using a planar tracker, easier green screen keying, and a new mask editor.
- A new tile based compositing system was added, along with more advanced color management.
- Cycles rendering got dozens of smaller features and improvements resulting from its use in production.
- Sculpting now supports masks, and a skin modifier was added to quickly create a model from skeletons.
- The game engine got improved shadows and physics options, and Collada export now has more options to tune for exporting to other game engines.

Sources.