What is Blender?

Blender is a 3D graphics application released as free software under the GNU General Public Licence.

What is Blender used for?

Blender can be used for modeling, texturing, water simulations, animating, rendering, non-linear editing, compositing, and creating interactive 3D applications, including games.

Blender Game Engine

Blender has its own built in Game Engine that allows you to create interactive 3D applications. The Blender Game Engine (BGE) is a powerful high-level programming tool. Its main focus is Game Development, but can be used to create any interactive 3d software for other things, such as interactive 3d architectural tours or educational physics research.

Using the Game Engine

The core of the BGE’s structure are Logic Bricks. The goal of Logic Bricks is to offer an easy to use visual interface for designing interactive applications without any programming language knowledge. There are three types of Logic Bricks:

• Controllers
• Actuators
• Sensors

Blender Interface

Basic Tutorial

Cost:

Free General Public License

Pros

• License: Free GNU
• Can create very high resolution models and renderings
• Depth of features comparable to high-end commercial software
• Cross platform compatibility
• MIDI files can be integrated using Python scripts

Cons

• Difficult to learn due to complex interface and short cut keys.
• Python scripts (For MIDI integration) are complex and require relevant programming background.

References

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blender_3D

http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Doc:Manual/Introduction