Originally Posted by
aeinstein 
what about pov-ray? it's free, has a great user community & evidently produces great images - although i believe the learning curve is a bit steep.
(note: my 3D imaging experience is relegated to running through a few "Simply-3D" tutorials, so saying that i'm NOT an expert is quite a bit of an understatement. just posting an observation of my own.)
it's been a while since i have looked at pov-ray but i believe it is a powerful rendering engine with only a very simple modeling interface.
it is entirely scripting based too (or at least last time i checked...several years ago
)
needless to say though if you can become very well with it you can create some very powerful renderings.
look into a piece of software called
rhino3d last i remember it was pretty damn cheap and extremely powerful.
it works using
NURBS (heheh thats one of the first websites i ever built right there). and has a rendering engine that can produce some sexy images.
its expensive to buy, but if you can prove you or someone you know is a student or teacher and then have the student/teacher buy its only 195...which is a steal for what it is. btw it also has a free trial.
