If you have professional aspirations, beyond the occasional independant job, or doing adult web comics. :) You might consider an industry standard app like Lightwave or Maya. Lightwave is a fine choice if that's the case. It's very affordable, relatively easy to learn and used EXTENSIVELY in TV production (as well as budget conscious film making). It does more out "out of the box" than any other app in it's price range. That being said learning a serious 3d app like Lightwave will require a serious time commitment and tons of practice. Expect to take a couple of years to get really profficient. Now if you are interested in 3d as a hobby, or are just interested in making a few extra bucks doing commercial art. Poser is very up to the challenge, and can create really great renders. Then maybe if you decide to try modelling, you could try something free, or cheap like Wings, blender, etc... They can model characters for use in poser just as well as a higher end app.