>>505046
I don't model, but I just wanted to say, I have always admired those that do. Hope you end up creating something Amazing and love every moment of it.

>>505046
3dsmax has always been a modeler's favourite, but Blender might be a good second choice.

zbrush have very interesting hardsurface modeling tools and it's much faster when you get used to it

3DSMax has been replaced by Maya almost entirely in the game and film industry.

>>505071
"Replaced"? 3DS Max was always the poor man's tool to begin with.

>>505046
Learn Maya and Blender, the first is the standard, the second is free and increasingly used for interesting things.

>>505070
Agreed, for "just" modeling it's hard to beat ZBrush, but I have to say it requires a sculptor's aesthetic to use, rather than a technical approach.

Blender because of its Python API. I feel like even if I did come across a feature I couldn't live without in another program I could probably just program it myself in Blender.

And for most things that's true, but Maya's ability to use actions and undo/redo almost like a modifier is pretty damn cool and I'm not sure how I could replicate it easily.

>>505085
Maya has Python just as deeply integrated into its core functions as Blender's is.

I use cinema 4d after I used blender for a while, and I find the UI easy to understand and helpful for new users. You can also get plugins such as Vray to improve render quality. But it has everything like physics and sculpting.

I only have experience with 3DS Max and Cinema 4D, and I found Cinema 4D to be much easier to get into.

Maybe it's just that I got a much more extensive introduction to it at the 2nd college I went to (1st college only scratched the surface of 3D modeling and animation with 3DS Max).

Price is horrible, though, and students only get 18 months, unlike the 3 years Autodesk offers with both 3DS Max and Maya.