Animation programs help!!!!?

Blender VS Maya, for 3d animation?

• i want to download a 3d animation program that i can use for fun. i want to know more about these programs before i download one of them. some questions i have are: can i create my own stuff from nothing? how big is the learning curve of these programs? for Maya i read that there is a student license, what does that mean, can i get one since i'm in high school? what is the main difference between the programs? what do you prefer? what are other programs like these two? i've hear of carrara but how good is that compared to maya? thanks for your help!

• Answer:

  Blender is opensourse freeware and multplatform with a huge community of resources 3d model collections, tutorials and videos available. Perfect for learning the complex skill sets required to animate. The skills are transferable to $4000 versions like Maya,3D Studio Max,Cinema 4D, Mental Ray and all the plugins used in production studio work (alongside Blender)