Silo is great, I tend to use hexagon a lot myself.  Thanks RAMWolfF for the link :)

I don't have Vue (yet), but do have Cararra.
There are some older versions of programs that can be purchased at low cost. The biggest part of the battle is to get a good handle on various modelling techniques (mainly of the subdivision kind). Once you do that, most programs will start looking the close to the same, and it ends up being a matter of personal preferences.

I'm sorry, my brain is jumbled up from trying to learn too much stuff at once so I'm not remembering a lot of detail, but, also there are several pieces of software where a demo version is made so that you can do everything except for saving, or have a limited number of 'saves', rather then being limited to a number of days etc...  Rhino being one of them.
I find those kinds of demo versions particularly useful for learning the program (on the budget)

Cloth modelling for example... I'm in the middle of comparing the simulations (in max) vs. hand sculpting them.  I'm not the best at setting up simulations yet, so atthe moment I'm on a cusp, it takes as much time to hand model something (by pushing vertices) as it does to set up and run a simulation, and get a pleasing result.

Also, the tools are only as good as one's knowledge of art techniques is. For example, I have years of experimenting with various clay modleing, from play dough to polymer clays to regular modelling clays, so modelling something in a program is just the matter of knowing which pencil to use for what. But, I'm not the best at figure drawing or sculpting... so, you can guess, figure modelling for me is a pain! Clothes, accessories, objects etc... no problem.

Hi, my namez: "NO, Bad Kitteh, NO!"  Whaz yurs?
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