I remember asking these same questions.

As was said earlier Vue is for creating environments to place the characters and objects in.

The objects and characters are created in other software and that's where it gets complex.

If your an artist like I was, what you want to do is create everything yourself?

First you have modeling programs that only do modeling and then you have complete packages that will do most anything. Many programs are free, but the ones you buy are far better but expensive.

Blender is free and it's a full package and very capable. I hate it but some like it.

Wings 3D is a free and very capable modeler.

Daz3D has software to do anything that are popular with hobbyists and artists that are a lot cheaper than the programs used in the industry. Carrara is a full package for instance.

Poser and Daz Studio are for posing characters before sending them to Vue to render in a scene. There are a lot of models you can buy compatable with them that are already rigged to be posed.

If you want to create your own, after building the model you also have to learn to create the UV maps and textures to apply to them. There are also bump maps, displacement maps and normal maps among others. The process is quite time consuming by the time you rig a model for posing and animation.

I use-

Lightwave (a complete professional package)

Vue 10 Infinite

Silo (a simple organic modeling program I use to make base meshes)

ZBrush (the state of the art in creating organic models with high details where you can also create all maps and paint the models) If you are an artist this is a program for artists and if I had to give up all but one program, I'd keep ZBrush. You should go to -zbrushcentral.com- and have a look. The best artists in the 3D world post there.

Most of all have fun, but expect to spend money if your serious and spend lots of time learning.