I work long time with Blender (years) and is very powerfull solution for 3D
My latest work with Blender was all the VFX 3D of the amateur film (real image): "V de vicioso" (parody of the 80's TV series "V the visitors").
If you want to see an example extracted from the intro sequence (13MB):
http://www.nicodigital.com/allow/nodrizasmallweb.avi
If you want to see the full film, here is the link (397MB - 50 minutes - only spanish):
http://www.nicodigital.com/vicioso/v...omachinoid.avi
Now I purchased Hex2+Carrara5Pro and I'm very happy, because Carrara is very easy to use and have a nice renderer, but otherwise Blender is light years ahead in matter of animation (every aspect) and some other minor things.