you're right about blender not being just another free ap... it was developed as an in-house tool by an animation company, then made open-source. That's why the interface is a bit weird, but people who have been with blender for a long time will swear by it.
. I know there is fur function, but have yet to discover dynamic cloth... will poke around. BTW-check out the normal-mapping functions. there is a tut
here
I assume you already know how to use normal maps... really cuts down on polygon count.. of course, there's also a python plugin that automatically normal maps your models, just have both low and hi-poly versions in the same file. but i forgot where it was
