Well I find that my music knowledge helps a lot in animation. I think of motions and how many beats it takes. A semi quick tempo song can be 120 beats a minute and that is what it takes for a brisk walk. A slow walk can be a slow as 60 beats a minute. so then think of motions is it one beat two beats. Think of things that happen on the offbeat  arm swing set in behind the beat. Other motions take a number of beats or quick ones are a half a beat.
    Each character has his own beat smaller characters are quicker larger are slower generally. So at 24 frames a second a brisk walk at 12 beats a minute will result in a 12 frame walk cycle a slow walk at 60 will be 24 a run at 180 will be 8 frames.

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        I would also recomend wings too it is a quick intuitive modeler. Silo is a excellent low cost option that has a lto of features that can get yrou feet wet with different techniques like it does  sculpting and face by face modeling. if you know wings then open up silo it will be somewhat familiar and you can get started.

Modeling is up to how you want to approach a problem how to approach how to make a shape. Some people are more inclined to spline type modeling others like to go the Z spheres/metaball approach others like box modeling.

Box modeling is taking a simple shape and adding cuts and extrusions until you get the shape you want. Wings is a good example of a box modeler

Spline modeling is more like cad type of work you make curves and trims etc. to get the shape you want.

Face by face modeling is a bit slower in sme respects but often needs less rework you make one face at a time. Silo and Metasequoia can do this

Zsphere and metaball modeling is done by taking primitives and they flow together at close range. Z brush does this also a lot of full featured programs have this feature.

Sculpting is done by different brushes and virtually sculpting the form to make a high poly mesh some allow you to make a low poly version adn then apply normal maps. Z brush and Mudbox are examples of this.

Now there are a lot of choices and there are some programs that do it all but do some things well and others not so much . My advice is learn a bit on the free ones then try out a few demos of regular modelers to see what you like before you put down the cash. Spending 10,000 dollars on programs does not make you a better spending time with the programs you have and learning them makes you good.

Personally I started with Strata 3D then went to Amapi then to Metasequoia now i use wings might get silo once I can scrape up enough cash.

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Anyways I have a few renders in mind based on known space by Larry Niven this is my belter girl. She lives in low to zero gravity most of her life so her proprotions are different long and lithe. Still working out shaders and then will rig and set up a series of morph targets will go over a few more times to clean up any geometry I need to. She has a helmet too.

right now I would just go for a clay render or an untextured render as your challenge render maybe add a link to your gallery to a textured version.

Well that sounds good steampunk transport. Hmm a deadline of sorts March 1st or so.

Well lets get some ideas. How about a steampunk car or an insect.

One advantage to how I do it while it is nowhere near as accurate a character the geometry works better to me I have less problems with polygons sticking out etc. Maybe as a bit of advice if you are doing poser to C4D use a lower res poser character and smooth it that would work better. The higher res characters tend to be more trouble with polygons not deforming right. If you look at some top end pro stuff you would be surprised how low res the mesh is with displacement maps and smoothing taking up the rest.

Well one thing to me is that people tend to rely too much on poser and fail to even try to make their own characters. I find most home brew characters from the ground up have a lot more personality than those from poser. Accruacy probably no but personality yes.

A lot of people are cheating themselves out of the best part of 3D breathing life into their own characters and bringing them to life straight from their imagination. Poser certainly has its uses adding a quick character or putting a pilot into an airplane etc.

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I provided a link to the Messiah message boards. There are top end pro users there that know way more than me i am just a hobbiest.

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I provided a link to the Messiah message boards. There are top end pro users there that know way more than me i am just a hobbiest.

Well I use Messiah and it works on quite a few levels it is a great program for rendering rigging and animating does not model but it does it all so well for so little. It does smoothing but it is very picky about geometry you absolutly cannot have any Ngons.

Slidy and all it is a cool animation. Take what you learned on that one and take it to your next one.