Whoa! - folks, once one has the overall big-picture direction, I think they can sort through the advice themselves and come up to speed in the way best for them...

For my part, I bounced around a bit (somewhat) learning Silo3D (I wouldnt even know what retopology is hadn't it been for the Silo3D book), but being a fan of Lynda.com courses, I'm presently making my way through their Modo course on the weekends.

• having done a little with 3DSMax, it's hard not to get totally sidetracked every few lectures and "play" with Modo.  I find that s/w package is downright addictive.

Also glad someone pointed out the C4D alternative (it's ~$1.6K vs. $1K for Modo).  I'm still in my ($25) Modo 30 day eval period.  I'd not like it if I spent the $1K and time to learn Modo - only to find there's something more widely used that's price competitive.

When I hit skulpting, I'll be checking out Blender (there's a Lynda.com course on it) and ZBrush (which gets referred to often)...