The Avon and Somerset Constabulary in Great Britain uses animations created with the open source tool Blender to help citizens understand how to protect their vehicles and possessions from theft.

Ian Ball, the constabulary's senior Internet and Multimedia Unit expert, picked up Blender on a whim about three years ago. "I was interested in learning 3-D and animation," Ball says, "but I didn't want to pay for Maya or anything else. I took a look at Blender, did the 'model a castle' tutorial, and was seriously impressed." Ball says he found Blender's interface "strange" and difficult to use at first, but as he became more familiar with the program things got easier. He went on to create "Car Thief Keith," and most recently, "Tent Thief Tony."

The Internet and Multimedia Unit serves the police force by maintaining the Web site and network, and it also creates all the advertising promotions.

More Here.