Pay has certainly gone up....I was averaging seven thousand a year in the US Army, as an E4, with hazard pay, too. I bought a computer, sure. And a used car. But it was tight. Had to borrow from my sergeant to swing the computer. I don't want to beat this horse, tho. Salutes to voodoo, and please share some stories with us old-timers. And we are willing to help anyone who is willing to do the work. Sorry if you got a bad reception, voodoo. There's been some funny stuff happening around lately and people are edgy. 3d can be tough, and modelling is one of the tougher subjects of 3d, and rigging models for animation tougher than that. It as yet can't be distilled down to a few posts on what to do. So the information and help you need is going to spread about various threads, forums, and external tutorials and links from these. And come into chat some time. There's almost always someone there, and usually someone who knows a bit about 3d... :)