Well, I’ve been messing around with Blender on and off for ages, but this is the first thing I’ve felt worth posting, as I might actually get somewhere with it.
Notes: Only the pins are anywhere near finished - the board, the room, the lighting, materials and camera all need work. Suggestions welcome. Then, of course, will be the animation.
I used Dupliverts for duplicating the pins, and the Drop2Ground python script to move them. There may be a better way of doing both, suggestions are, as previously stated, welcome.
Test animation: http://www.users.on.net/~thornae/pinboard.mpg