Modeling:

Rhinoceros 3D

Rhino Forum

Of course I am a tad prejudice about Rhino, but when it comes to a user friendly "Intuitive" program that can build models for just about anything, not just Poser. Rhino is the best. All 500 commands used in very version of AutoCAD will work in the command line. Plus the drop down tools and then several tool sets right out there for your easy access, makes Rhino the best choice.

Other add on features include Bongo for animating, Flamingo Photo Realistic rendering. And if you take only one college course, or are already a student, you can get the student discount offered here at renderosity or over at their official site.

Add to this, we have a Rhino forum here with over 50 tutorials in the threads all inked in the forum header. The same guy that co-moderates that forum also moderates the UV Mapper Forum. Our team and its users nearly step over one another to help fellow Rhino users. You will find them the most tame and helpful bunch anywhere on the WWW.

I would recommend Photoshop for a paint program because Poser will let you use Photoshop documents when making textures.

Yank My Doodle, It's a Dandy!