Software Pick of the Day: Blender

Since I've been working playing around with Microsoft's XNA framework I've been on a game development kick. I don't think I'll be writing the next Halo but at least I'll have dabbled in it a bit. In any case I've been learning a little bit about 3d modeling, which would typically drive a person to applications such as 3D studio max or Maya. Instead I'm going to recommend a different piece of software that is very powerful and open source, which means you can get it on the cheap. Blender is an extremely powerful piece of 3D software that has a bit of a steep learning curve but will help you get the job done. I've been playing with this tool on and off for a few years now and I have to say that it may seem like a daunting interface, but so are most other applications of this type. Check it out here.