In these years, 3D software had huge improvements. The realism of many rendered scenes is very impressive (as you can see from many movies...). In this page there are a few softwares that allow to reach this grade of perfection; this is generally not easy (you need a lot of time, if you do not know a lot about 3d apps), but the results worth any effort.

3D Studio Max is probably the most famous 3D software, since you can render almost anything, but there is a long learning curve. If you need to achieve faster results, you may think to buy 3d models, that third parties generally sell at an affordable price.

Bryce and Vue 4 Professional are great solutions for creating, animating and rendering natural 3D scenery and landscapes. They are quite easy to use, and results are absolutely impressive (with plants, skies, clouds and sunsets, rocks, rivers, etc.).

Poser 5 is the best software for creating human models. They can be rendered inside Poser or exported to other software, like 3DS Max or Vue 4 and rendered there. There are a few human models bundled in the package, but if you want great and realistic models you should buy additional 3d models from third parties. You can even import your facial photos and create new characters with your face, then change expressions with a few clicks.