As far as I'm concerned, the POV raytracer is the coolest software anywhere. It's FREE, it's easy to use, and it's very powerful. You'd have to spend about $500 to get a better computer rendering package. And even then you'd get less documentation, less control of details, and few (if any) shareware add-ons.

Here are some links to all the stuff you need to get started making your own computer generated art.

POV ftp site

Wow, is this place packed with stuff or what? It's all here; pictures, utilities, source code, documentation, modellers....

POV documentation

Here's the entire POV documentation in indexed html format. Indispensible for newbies and power users alike.

POV's WWW site

Check out the cool watch. It's worth the wait to download the larger version.