for 3d modeling and animation there is a totally free option that is wonderful. it is called Blender 3d. it is open source and updated regularly. http://www.blender3d.com
another graphics program for 2d art that is free is Gimp. it is also well maintained and full of features. it’s basically a free version of photoshop. http://www.gimp.org (Dave beat me to it 🙂 )
as far as compilers go, i know microsoft was giving their c++ compiler and also there c# compilers away for free. they were contained in the MS SDK and MS .NET SDK downloads. they were just the command line tools, meaning no GUI, but hey, they’re full featured and free. i never downloaded them to check them out since i own Visual Studio .NET, but i know others did and used them. when you combine them with the free DirectX SDK download you have a full Windows game development environment that didn’t cost a thing.