These technologies are still in development, but here are some incredible developments that can convert a picture into a 3D image:

http://www.photo-to-3d.com/

http://make3d.stanford.edu/

http://code.google.com/p/libmv/

Some links to free 3D models, that are compatible (.blend file, or can be imported) with Blender:

http://e2-productions.com/repository/index.php

http://telias.free.fr/Models_menu.html

http://www.blenderwars.com/content.php?module=download

I found another tutorial that shows you how to go from a 3D object in Blender, and export it as something that you can use with a Papervision or another Flash 3D engine. It exports to a Collada file, before you import into Papervision.

I came accross this open source 2D annimation tool called Synfig. It's still in beta phase, but it looks to be pretty interesting. One of the things it's supposed to be really good at is tweening. It's intended more for Film and TV type annimations, rather than typical net stuff. I'm not sure if it's going to be as good as After Effects or Flash for most things, but it could prove useful for something!

Great news everyone! Search Engines are now getting the technology to crawl through Adobe Flash content. The Flash SWFs files (even old ones) are now becoming searchable by search engines. :)

The improved SWF search even includes the capability to load and access remote data like XML calls and loaded SWFs. This means Flex applications are included too!

http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flashplayer/articles/swf_searchability.html

I came accross some more Blender 3D tutorials, that I thought were pretty good for beginners (they show pretty well how to use the interface):

http://showmedo.com/videos/series?name=blenderMoyesSeries001

Also, here are some more Blender video tutorial links:

http://www.ibiblio.org/bvidtute/

http://www.blender.org/education-help/video-tutorials/

And another good place to start:

I found this little comparison review of Open Source Video editing programs. The top three came out as KDENLIVE, OpenMovieEditor, and... Blender. Actually, the reviewer claims that those are the only ones he found really usable on Linux.

While looking for an open source publishing tool (such as Adobe InDesign or Microsoft publisher), I came across this site which lists popular comercial software and it's counterpart in the open source world:

http://www.osalt.com/system-utilities

It seems that there are a lot of very powerful open source applications out there! Open source software can be great when you're in a pinch, or need something simple to do the job, without costing you. But some times the comercial software is still the more powerful option, or sometimes even the only option.

The new Open Movie (completely open source) Big Buck Bunny has been released! It's only 10 minutes long, but as you can see, it's very professional looking!

If you're interested in learning 3D, specifically Blender, I came across this set of Tutorials that's formatted in a "class" kind of way:

http://www.gryllus.net/Blender/3D.html

It has videos broken down into different functions and tasks, so it makes it easier to find a specific thing that you're trying to figure out how to do. Seems like a good place to start learning Blender, and even has some "intermediate" stuff too.