Let me put a good word in for Sidefx Houdini. For anyone with a programmer mindset, it is phenomenal. I’ve been using it on and off again since version 3 back in 2000. There’s a free version, Apprentice, but it is watermarked and limited in render size. The Indie version though is, I think, fully featured and only a couple hundred bucks (though again limited to non-commercial work). For tinkering or training yourself up, that’s good value. Houdini is a marketable skill if you want to go spend long stressful hours in a VFX studio for relatively little pay and no job security 
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