Hey Erik - not blender, Just clunky ole lightwave. I love it but it eats time like a black hole! Doing anything human-form is forget-it-country 
I like to stick to simple conceptual stuff. I had a choice last year, either learn lightwave/maya etc or the pennywhistle 
I bet you donāt suck so bad - post one up!
BTW Cricket - your work is fabulous!
Thanks Mitch. And you were dead on about Lightwave, I use that program from time to time and the āfaint at heartā shouldnāt try to create organic forms in there. But in the right hands, excellent program, I just donāt like the render engine, Maya has that beat, hands down.
I take inspiration from a couple of guys..Layne Karkruff http://www.blueskyheart.com/ and Howard Sayles http://howardsayles.theapplecollection.com/
If anyone wants a custom wallpaper or have a theme idea just let me know, itās just something I do for fun beside torturing the neighbors and family with pipes (are they considered pipes if you only have the practice set, maybe I just play pipe. 
)
Hereās a few of mine from years back.
This chair was made in Bryce.
The duck was made in Amorphium. The vine in some freebee I picked up somewhere. The rest in Bryce.
My first Bryce picture. Iād make it better but lost the original file format.
Actually my daughter made this in Amorphium. Kudos to anyone who recognizes where the idea came from.
Made with Poser 3 and Bryce.
Bryce again.
Thereās a couple I forgot to add. Thereās one with a vampire I need to find on one of my backup CDs. Itās awesome. When I find it Iāll post it.
Lightwave is too expensive. Blender is too much of a headache. I still use RayDream studio. Their only problem is the Z and Y axis are reversed from every other 3D program.
Amorphium is good for organic objects but has an extremely high polygon count.
Poser used to be good but has gotten suckier. Clothes and hair are still a major problem. You basically have to do them post-render in PSP or Photoshop.
Mitch, those are great whistles. Love the texture.
Good ole Bryce. That was my first 3D program. Once I stopped making floating spheres , it turned out to be a pretty good program
Iād say the hippo was maybe from the Bela Fleck album Cosmic Hippo. Just a guess. The pool scene got me laughing, typical boys
I started another this morning, about 3 hours work so far..
Cricket wins.
You have a knack for textures. I especially like the ones in the first pic on this page.
Okay, I have seen mention of Maya, Bryce, Lightwave, Amorphium, Blender, Raydream. So far I have only tried to battle with a piece of junk from Corel. Any suggestions as to where to start for self-teaching?
Thx,
djm
Thereās bunches of them. Maya, Lightwave and 3d Studio Max are pretty expensive but I think 3d studio Max is less then the other two.
Bryce is geared toward landscapes but as you can see you can make objects using basic shapes.
Blender is a freebee but I found it extremely difficult to use. I donāt know if they still make Raydream.
Amorphium is a āblobā manipulation software. Good for some things, not for others.
One of the most famous freebees is POVRay. I believe there are some decent front ends for it as well.
Poser comes with pre-made human figures you can manipulate.
Thereās one called Rhino that used to be free but Iāve never used it.
Youāll find there are a lot of aspects to 3d modelling but really three main parts (not including animation). Thereās the model, textures and the scene which includes lighting etc.
The modelling is fairly simple for some things except animals and humans. I find the texture aspect to be much more challanging and rewarding. In fact there are a lot of web sites for textures where people make good money selling them.
Iāll do some searching and see what I come up with.
Try this link:
Thereās a plethora of freebees to give you an idea. Iām going to download some myself.
Hmm, okay, Fly. Thatās a good start, but still doesnāt address the question, where to start. A lot of the stuff at this site is about programming. I just want to make pretty pictures.
djm
OK. With that in mind your best bet may be to get pre-made models and textures and utilize software suitable for creating scenes.
As I mentioned, creating models is one step in the process of making pretty pictures.
Example: If you want to make a living room scene you need to make chairs, tables, lamps, lamp shades, brick-a-brack, walls, windows, window sills, curtains etc.
Next you have to texture all of them so they look how you want.
Next you have to put all these textured models together to form a scene with lighting.
Making pretty pictures can be extremely time consuming.
So hereās what you should do to be up and running:
PRELIMINARY (optional) read up on 3d art.
http://www.highmarkdesign.com/3D%20Artwork/3D%20Art.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3D_modelling
STEP 1:
go to: http://www.renderosity.com and check for free models and textures.
go to: http://www.poserworld.com and check for more free models and textures.
go to: http://renderotica.com for more free models and textures. You have to log into this site due to adult content.
do a google for āfree 3d modelā and see what else comes up.
do a google for āfree textureā .
Collect as many as you can.
Make sure the file type for the models is .OBJ or .DXF.
The file type for the textures can be any graphic type. Jpg is smaller but bmp has better detail.
STEP 2.
Obtain software that will allow you to import these models/textures and create a scene.
Go to: http://www.daz3d.com/program/studio/1_0index.php and download DAS Studio. It letās you import your stuff, make a scene and render. Itās free.
OR
Go to
http://www.delgine.com/
click on the āproduct linkā and download the āliteā version.
This not only lets you set up scenes but also has modelling and texture editing features.
STEP 3:
Youāll still probably need to make some of your own models so
download this: http://www.anim8or.com/main/index.html
STEP 4:
If you want to create cool outdoor scenes try this free one:
http://www.planetside.co.uk/terragen I havenāt tried this yet but I think I will.