Hi,
My name's peter, i'm a digital artist using lightwave 3d and fusion to create VFX for feature films and my own works.
Here is a still from a blender artist using the rock essentials asset package from blenderguru.
I've noticed that the free 3d program has really come a long way and it's actually useful to people who use other 3d packages as well.
breakdown of the image - http://imgur.com/zqZYlA1
I'm seeing alot of content in the form of 3d asset packages coming from a guy named blender guru. He's a guy in Australia who has cornered the blender market by providing high quality 3d grass and rocks. By doing so - he's turned a fairly hard to use program into a game changer for some. People are now pumping out amazing art using this free 3d program that rivals similar software costing thousands. Lightwave alone is one of the cheaper packages and costs just under 1000 bucks.
Putting together an bunch of high quality assets is something I've been slowly doing over the years which is creating these assets myself. However he's gone ahead and made 400 assets to use, which is great because when you have a project, you just grab your assets and piece it together, which is the greatest way to put stuff together. assets take 8 to 10 hours to create yourself, so 400 of them is over 4000 hours of work done for you. Totally worth it if you can cover the 300 bucks he's asking for.
If you create 3d, and make money from it. Its worth the investment.
blender gurus webpage has some great tutorials on it - http://www.blenderguru.com/
and of course the assets are on sale there too .
Here is a great piece showing the rocks arranged to make a cave in the ocean.
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/zKZ0Z
blender is free and can be found here - https://www.blender.org/
its version is up to 2.77a