New Blender 3D with Motion Tracking, new rendering engine, dynamic paint
This is actually the first time I've heard of Blender, and...wow.  Every once in a while the free software scene totally blows my mind, and these folks really seem to have the big-name tools in their sights.<p>It's been a long, long time since I understood 10% of what a production-class modeling and animation tool can do, but maybe someone here knows:<p>How does Blender compare to Maya, for example?  What would this project need to achieve before folks would start switching?