Blender is the best alternative to Autodesk 3ds Max. It is all in one 3D content creation suite available for all major operating systems. It includes tools for modeling – fast subdivision surface and polygon tools, multi-resolution mesh sculpting, metaballs, NURBS, vector fonts, and curves; uv mapping; shaders and texturing – both paint based and node based; ik and fk animation tools with rigging, constraints, skinning, morph targets, drivers, deformers, and modifiers; simulation tools including hard bodies, soft body, cloth, and fluids; and particle systems including hair.

Blender has integration for rendering with both native renderer and the raytracer Yafray as well supporting many external renderers; and python based scripting.

Download Blender 2.49b Stable (Autodesk 3ds Max Alternative)