Well, I am a coder myself, and a decent 2d graphic artist.
But 3d modeling is not for me.
I am a good coder, I am very passionate making stuff happen nicely, but unfortunately, I require good 3d model animations.
When I worked with 2d games, it was very fun, because I was able to code and make my sprite animations fit exactly what I wished with no one's help.
And now, I want to do something similar with Unity. Some kind of game where the player is very well animated, with lots of moves, killing enemies in a bloody manner. Like God Of War III or something.
I have not played much with 3d modeling, but I doubt I can do much. And probably, zero character animations.
People might recommend me to go look for a 3d model artist partner or something, but no, I tend to work alone on my projects.
I also don't want to buy animated 3d models - I have too specific animation ideas...
So, me being a newbie on 3d modeling, yet wanting to make decent animated characters and objects, what 3d modeling tool would you recommend me, and what tutorials as well?
First it is free and it is an incredible tool for your 3D models, there are a ton of books and tutorials on the internet so you will have no problem making animations and your models in a short period of time.
I reccomend you trying Blender, reading some books and watching some tuts.
Good Luck Justin Warner.
Just for curiosity what game engine did you used for your 2d games?
In case you don't know there trueSpace from Caligari website at http://www.caligari.com/ that provided for free. It's not a toy but great full 3D authoring package.
You should learn 'hard' using available free downloadable video tutorials. It worthy, I can assure that. I won't use any 3D modelling software that I can't afford (yet), even-though for evaluation. We are making games here for money and we should create it with honest and right way. I see a lot people using cracked softwares and even using it for commercial.
This is the full 3D authoring package
with no time restrictions and no
license restrictions on how you use
it. This version is the latest release
from Caligari with many bug fixes and
improvements to the Link Editor. This
version has had the legacy Model side
removed and features only the new
tools in the workspace side. The
manual and videos from trueSpace7.61
should be used.