Hello,

In reaction to a question somebody asked me, I decided to make a small introduction to 3D. Later maybe I will post some tutorials for modeling itself.

What do you need to know before you become an allround 3D artist. Well, you will need to know what the major disciplines in 3D are. The more disciplines you master, the easier it will get to get a job.

Making 3D models consistes of these disciplines: 

1. making wireframe models (consisting of vertexes conected with each other)
2. making refined 3D models (for example the wrinkles on the skin)
3. making materials
4. applying UV coordinates yo the models (this is creating the coordinates where exactly the textures need to be placed on the wireframe)
5. creating textures
6. creating rigs and animating 3d models
7. creating good looking lightning and shadows
8. creating camera effects
9. sometimes you need to create particle effects
10. rendering (creating nice looking pictures of your models)

The next thing you need to know is what tools/software you need:
For creating 3D models you don't always need 3D Studio Max. It is quite expensive, though it gives you almoust everything you need.
Good modeling packages are: 3D Studio Max, Silo, Maya, Cinema 4D. All of these except Silo contain also rendering engines, material editors.
You can create textures with paining programs (like Photoshop, Paint.net) or paint textures directly on models (use Bodypaint 3D, Deep Paint 3D)
For rendering, you can use the built in renderer or an external (like Vray, Maxwell Render, Flyrender, Final Render)
For animating (after the rig has been applied) you can use Motionbuilder or the modeling package (except for Silo)
For refining your 3D models, you can use Zbrush or Mudbox

Then you will need a computer:
Buy a computer with a fast processor (I would recommend one with many cores), a good new graphical card with ram up to 512 MB (more gives no benifit), a lot of RAM (if you use Vista buy 4 GB, 1 GM is minimum), a hard disk with high rates/minute (10.000 would be nice. It doesn't need to contain more than 60 GB), a 3 button mouse, a good desk so that your arm can rest on it instead of floathing in the air (to prevent a painfull arm) and a good big LCD monitor (you will spend some hours begind it and CRT monitors hurt your eyes. Don't buy a 20+ inch, because your eyes will hurt as well).