Signed up 2009/2010 - forum died. Stayed dead for a long time. Just found her again while searching for software in Google. I began trying to learn in 2001 and hung around the Max forums (mostly Brits and one a couple of Scots ha ha) a little past the 9/11 thang. Gave up trying to wrap my head around this stuff a year later. Come 2009 I pulled it all back out again and found out it's true what they say about the subconscious memory - even if you don't understand something now still make an effort to try and learn. Everything I studied in 2001 came back to me and made sense this time.

So now five years later I am much more up to speed. My main focus are minimalist kids' illustrations. I mostly work in Curvy and Max - Can work uber fast in Ray Supreme which would be my favorite boxer if it weren't so unstable or offered an autosave feature. I've just began learning rigging and animation which is coming to me quickly. My main interest is centered around still images however.

Most complex thing I've done over the past couple of months were these:

This board had a really small pop back in 2009/2010 and then died (an Oprah / Jim Carry Ratpure I didn't get invited to or some s**t); now it looks like there was some life in 2013

Anyways, the op answers a question I had earlier today but was actually googling for something completely different and stumbled upon this.

I think ngons were an old worry. Newer software can keep up with them easier. I'm not sure about game development but it was explained to me that they causes glitches in print (maybe pre-press businesses are using better tech nowadays too.)

Actually my issue earlier today had to do with a lizard cartoon character I'm making - I do a lot of minimalist kids' stuff for the fun of it. I had the prims pulled and bent into the basic shapes that I was going to run from Max into Curvy for finer sculpting and was wondering if I should just sloppy attach them all together or get meticulous with the welder. I figured that if I was going to use the model again outside of just a still image in Curvy it might bode well to go the proper route.

So my question, in general, was 'Does sloppy still matter considering today's tech'? Granted i was going to go uber lazy and just smash and glue without even going as far to worry about ngons and tris. Regardless I was hell bent on doing this lizard model properly just for the practice.

And what's with the checkboxes below for 'Language, Violence & Nudity' is that a wish list or what my words could possibly lead too?

 Thanks for the info. =)

 Here it is, I'm pretty sure this specializes in boning and animation and it's the free learning edition.

www.naturalmotion.com/ele.htm

 Hmm.....I think Mod Tools handles skeletal systems.

Blender should do as well.

Oh, wait...there's another freeware program for this. Will look up in a second.

Curvy 2.0 handles boning but not quite sure if using its boning system with an import would work.

 Yer welcome. =)

 This har is freeware and although not useful for much else it does appear to be the boning mastah! 

www.insanesoftware.de/

 I'm not sure what exactly it's morph tool does but the painting aspect of it feels a bit outdated when you compare it to some of the other programs out there.

I would download the demo or free version and try it out first. Also Future Paint 3D http://www.futurepaint3d.com/ , similar to Blacksmith, I liked a lot but after seeing how texture and bump projection painting worked in Sculptris the whole 'cloning' thing feels a bit ancient.

 Also cool work guys and nice to see what an experienced user can do in Metasequoia.

 More Curvy started last week. Have been busy the whole week so haven't gotten back to it yet. Plan on putting some hair on her in Mod Tools.

I'm not really great with 2D but have been using Dogwaffle Pro to create backdrop reference images.

 It might be fixed now. I ended up getting it from a mirror.

 Thanks for the link, airflames. I've been doing this for a few months now but the poles thing was a bit beyond my current intellectual capacity and a strain on the ol' noodle but have bookmarked it as well for that rainy day off in the future where it will all suddenly make sense. =)

 I guess the best example I can give is this. 

With Sculptris I can quickly, cleanly and easily make some pretty decent looking stuff that's completely bump mapped, textured and painted.

But if I went with Sculptris and Sculptris only, I wouldn't be learning modeling.

I think the one main thing to consider is that if you find yourself in a situation where your models are going to have to meet specific requirements for games, video or print, you're going to want to know how to model the prehistoric way so that you have complete control over your texture resolutions, poly counts and such.

 Blender is a full featured software suite and has a pretty big future. People learning to model for the first time are learning with Blender due to it being free. 

When you pay more for a specific program, you're paying more because the tool sets in that software are easier to use or you just simply find its interface to be the most comfortable. 

With just Blender alone I could do all that I want to with 3D software but own Curvy 2.0 because it's enjoyable to play around in and looking to save up for Silo because it is reasonably affordable (under $200) and it has the easiest to use and cleanest looking interface out of all the modelers that I've tried.

Another thing is, if you're learning for the first time, you are learning  the most by learning through Blender because Blender takes you through everything from scratch where as the more expensive software can sometimes simplify things to the point where it feels like it did it for you.

 Thanks man. I was hoping there would a selection to set it to auto join like in Softimage but if the spacebar isn't already used for something that's probably the best place to assign it.