Summary: http://trailfire.com/mouse-destruction/trailview/32289
Forget MS-Office. I use this all the time.. an excellent and free alternative.
Although I prefer Adobe Photoshop for still graphics & photo work; Photoshop is expensive. Gimp is free and opensource. Gimp is very capable and popular. It is even used in the film industry for texturing, special effects and frame by frame touch ups... Just like Photoshop, Gimp has a bit of a learning curve but is worth the investment.
I can't believe this is a free package!
Want to model and animate 3D computer graphics & characters? Have a capable computer but can't afford Lightwave 3D, Maya, or any of the countless high end packages? Then you want Blender! Keep in mind that learning to think and create in multiple computer dimensions can be a challenge. So no matter what 3D package you do start with; you can count on a painfull learning curve. But where there's a will there's a way. I think it was all worthwhile for me in the end... You just never stop learning.
