Flashing snall:
I recommend gamespace. If you can't afford it, fragmotion or milkshape are good.
Anyway you have to know that this are only "tools". You have to learn to use any tool and expect to be learning for weeks, even months, before you have something working. But it is worth the effort. There are lots of tutorials on the internet, which makes it easier.
The main areas to cover are: Modeling, UVmapping, texturing, rigging, animating. The only thing that will make you sure to use any tool and have results is experience. And we all wish you good luck and patience.
Gamespace has a couple of freely downloadable video tutorials where you can look at the complete making of a model.
http://www.caligari.com/gamespace/tutorial/video.asp
This is a site where you will find milkshape and C4D tutorials:
http://www.psionic3d.co.uk/tutorials.html
Deadly pixel:
I use Poser. It an excellent program intended for quality 2D rendering and has its own animation system. The models for poser are pro-made and they have some issues on game making:
a) They are super-high poly count, for quality rendering, not for games. Forget about using a human model with 50,000 to 120,000 polygons+, usually. Textures are generally 4000x4000.
b) This models are very strict on copyright issues. You can not simply use their models if you plan to make a game and include the object or a simplified model. Read their license.
c)There are some tricks for exporting animation by using BVH, but usually this works if you preserve the original geometry, which is useless for games. Getting that animation involves converting into different bone systems, which can be not only time consuming but in the way you ruin the original animation.
By far the best thing to do is make your own models, and for that purpose, Poser is an excellent source of "photos" of models. Some weeks ago I placed a "work in progress" using that technique, here:
http://forums.caligari.com/gamespace/showthread.php?t=2645
May the 3d force B with U
