I've been out of school for a while now.

And they weren't that bad. They graded on a 96% A-curve. 

The first thread you linked are game characters. They're low poly tri meshes. Most of what you're seeing is converted to displacement. If you worked in a game studio you'd be rigging things like that on a regular basis. Well, if you're a rigger that is.

Meats Meier is an amazing artist, and very respected in the pro world. He's worked on  films in the past, but I think he mostly does sculpture. 

 

~Shane