Freeware

Starting out with Monkeyjam animation freeware for my first shots. So far so good.
You can find their software here

http://monkeyjam.org/

Mandelbulber

Quick look at creating high tech or alien backgrounds... Not comfortable with this w/o knowing how to control patterns, lighting, and color. Still very interesting.

 Here's their website if anyone would like to try their freeware:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/mandelbulber/?source=dlp