I use 3ds max, I think it's the best, unfortunately it's not free, but you can get a trial edition.
If you want to animate, use Milkshape (I personally hate this piece of shi... software, but I don't know better)
I could never get 3ds without paying for it. So I don't use it.
I use anim8tor in anim8ting my models.
However, to get my models to b3d format so that stranded 2 can use the animations. I expect to .an8 in anim8tor. Then I use Ani2pov to change it over to milkshape3d format. Then I use milkshape to change it to b3d.
Blender is the only really free animator that I know of. However, blender is... horrible... to understand in my opinion.
If your looking for just static model builds, I would suggest wings3D because of the easy to use, easy to learn user interface.