I would suggest, being very new to 3D, first you should read some online forums and tutorials about the basics of 3D itself.  With a little looking around, even here on Renderosity, you will find tutorials that are not nescessarily program specific.  Get an idea of the process, the steps, the time, the work, and the nescessary tools to accomplish everything you are setting out to do from beginning to end.  Then, start at the begining, and decide which tools you wish to use for each step.

Plan your tools - pick the tools that work best with each other to achieve your ultimate goal.  For example, being that you want to 3D model to import to either Poser, or Vue for animation i would absolutely NOT recomend Sketchup - Sketchup uses a proprietary model format and can not export to more commonly used formats unless you shell out big money for the pro version (honestly, for the $500 they want there are far superior programs out there to sketchup, like Carrara, or Lightwave).  Keep in mind, a combination of software that works for one, may not be suitable for all. Everyone has different tastes.  I personally use a large number of programs, several that can interact with each other in some form (Lightwave, Poser Pro, Carrara, Vue Complete). There are a lot of good 3D applications on the market with resident modelers (Lightwave, 3D Studio Max, Carrara, Cinema 4D, Truespace, Wavefront/Maya, and many more), and there are many free modelling applications (Wings3D, Milkshape, Sketchup, Meshlab, etc...).  I would recomend an application that either is designed for, or supports Wavefront .OBJ modelling, as it is fairly universal in 3D (most programs can import/export).  Once you have settled on a modeling program and/or 3D software suit, start scouring the net for tutorials.  There are scands of tutorials out there for every stage of the process, for most application - take advantage of this.  Find tutorials for the program set you have selected and begin tackling the learning curve.  Here on Renderosity, as well as at Daz3D, and RuntimeDNA there are plentiful tutorials for Poser, and many for Carrara and other 3D tools.  Once you know the ins and outs of creating 3D then start to work on editing and compiling the video and selecting video editing programs (check some video specific websites, find tutorials, etc...).

Start Small - Before shelling out money for big dollar programs you may or may not like, and may or may not use, acquire some freebies.  Get only one or two paid programs.  Pick the one program most essential to your goal, that you are most familiar with, and build on that.  Planit3D.com has a good list of resources and free 3D applications.  If you are using Vue and you already paid for it, then look to free 3D resources and applications to compliment it.  Learn what formats of models it can import and export, and find tools that support those.

Take time to learn your software - read the manual carefully. Keep the manual handy for reference as you work. Consider picking up additional instruction and reference books for your software. If you have a question, check the manual first, then check the developers' online faqs and tutorials, then search some common forums for information.  Asking questions as extremely broad as this thread will not net specific results.  All of the information you are asking for is already out there, some of it right here on renderosity, in forum threads, tutorials, the software manuals, and the manufacturer's website.  Just as you want others on these forums to take time to give you answers, you must be willing to take time to read and search the tutorials for the ones you can find. 3D animation requires a lot of patience and effort, and a lot of determination.

Forum Search is your friend - on many sites you can search the forums for keywords and find valuble resources, tutorials, and information.  Many forums have "Sticky" topics that contain useful information, and links to tutorials (such as at the top of this Poser forum). On renderosity there is no specific forum search, but a site search will yield the desired results.

Google is your friend - A well worded search on google will find you gold. Granted, it is a little harder than when the net was young, and there is always unrelated junk to sort through - but if you don't have the patience for sifting through search results I'd say give up on 3D animation as it is tedious, time consuming, and requires near infinite patience.

Video Tutorials a'la Youtube -  Often times just typing a program's name and the word tutorial on youtube will net you dozens of great video tutorials (especially for After Effects and Poser).  Create an account and tag the tutorials you find most useful to your favorites list for review and easy revisiting.

Freebies are your friends - It never hurts to stock up on freebies for future use.  There are a lot of freebies across the net, in various 3D formats.  You can build quite a library of content on just freebies.  Many freebies are for personal use only.  Most freebies will include a liscense or terms of some sort, it's best to read them to make sure you don't use a freebie commercially that you are not allowed to.  Many times you can save a lot of time and effort with freebies - think of both freebies and purchased content as a movie studio would think of their props, costume, and hair department.  Build these up, reuse items in new and interesting ways, be versatile.

I hope some of this information was helpful.

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