I spent far too much time doing 3D graphics to get me through college (it was tremendous fun but I fortunately had the good sense not to make a career out of it).
Resources:
Modellers:
- gSculpt (open source, written in Python)
- Blender (free, does just about anything)
- Wings 3D (free, has POV-Ray export)
- GMax, game oriented, Windows-only
- Modo (commercial, 30-day trial available, utterly brilliant)
Ray-Tracers:
- POV-Ray - the one application I spent more CPU time running, easily.
- Yafray (free, supports distributed rendering)
Models:
- 2001 - A Space Odyssey - 3D Models in various formats.