be happy you havent done it wrong in this case

what you have is poserfying

thats where poser finds long narrow faces and makes them look relly bad

there is a few ways to fix it but i will give you the easies way

delete the center vertice and then select the ring that is left and extrude it inwards

scale it to about half of the diameter and extrude again and scale it until just before it is 1 vertice diameter

extrude  1 more time and merge at center

resave and pull it into poser and it should be fixed

in the posted image there is what appears to be a remnant which could just be a orphan vertice or it could be a derrivitave vert that is linked to the mesh somewhere

if it is an orphan it should be deleted but if it is linked it could need to be welded to its parent or deleted

yes something that minor can cause the issue that you are having

another cause is that the mesh is over modded there was no need for so much geometry

what happens when you add the points is that the edges break to resemble a square

if the mesh requires that the faces be turned then you can just use the box select tools to catch the top edge verts but it the added mods are just for looks for now i would have started with a circle at 16 verts, select the circle and subdivide once, then extrude that and scale it, then grab every other vert on the top loop and scale them up or just drag them up using the grab tools

you get the same effect but it is still a single loop and easier to texture and map later

there was a tutorial over on cgcookie that dealt with hair sculpting that went into styling of the hair as well

http://cgcookie.com/blender/lessons/part-01-sculpting/

end to end its 11 parts in total but from the last time i watched it it was one of the better i have seen as of yet

im still new to cycles but i have seen some awesome renders from it

i do know that based from my history with pixar that blender is capable of some killer works

ive seen renders done in cycles that took days but were eye popping and i have seen some of the best of the best that are out there

you do not need other wares if you learn to work in blender but blender can be difficult to grasp for many

i still use an older version(2.49) so i am viewed as a dinosaur but i am learning the newer versions

personally id preffer the older build

im not much of the sedintary type

at 0630 i am feeding the animals and then cook breakfast

then its time to clean stalls and lay down new bedding

after that its time to get the horses walked and brushed

then resoap saddles and prep the atvs to run the fences

then comes lunch and more work

its odd to detail it into a basic timeline because now i wonder how i have time for my twice daily 2 mile walks

im not much of the sedintary type

at 0630 i am feeding the animals and then cook breakfast

then its time to clean stalls and lay down new bedding

after that its time to get the horses walked and brushed

then resoap saddles and prep the atvs to run the fences

then comes lunch and more work

its odd to detail it into a basic timeline because now i wonder how i have time for my twice daily 2 mile walks

im not much of the sedintary type

at 0630 i am feeding the animals and then cook breakfast

then its time to clean stalls and lay down new bedding

after that its time to get the horses walked and brushed

then resoap saddles and prep the atvs to run the fences

then comes lunch and more work

its odd to detail it into a basic timeline because now i wonder how i have time for my twice daily 2 mile walks

i guess that makes me a dinosaur of sorts because i still love the 2.49 interface as stock

if the newer blenders would let me have the new features with the old looks id be a fan of them but since they dont ill stick to the edition i know best

i can model and sculpt in the older version and then take that to 2.69 for rendering and meterials

the biggest difference between blender and other programs is that blender is open source so it gets updates and add ons every day

blender can do everything that most of the paid for softwares can do with a few exceptions

i love blender as i have been using it since almost day 1 but there will always be some limitations in every software ever made

cgcookie and blendernation are good resources to learn from but they do not always address your particular situation, but most tutorials will work across platforms. meaning that most maya tuts are doable in blender

i would have to delve into the deepest levels of the newer blender to figure out how to reset the interface to the older style but i have been told that it can be done

and i just looked it is a .chm file type

the blender wiki is the manual and you can download the most current version from blendernation

its about 26Mb to 53Mb depending on what version you want

i have never downloaded it because i only work in 2.49b and the newer blenders are torture to me

the site has links to the downloadable version but again firefox is killing my ability to post the links

the 2.7 series manual is at the blendernation site

i would link to it but firefox refuses to let me post the link copy

just search blender 2.71 manual and it will show you several links, choose the ones to blendernation

the newer blenders do not use the old ways anymore but you can get a basic tool menu by pressing T on your keyboard

remove the texture image and then reload it because sometimes if you did not remove the original file it will get confused

sometimes the normals will reverse