I'm currently in a tecnical school learning multimedia. I'm completly obcessed with programming and at the end of my third year (equivelant to 12th grade) I'm supposed to present a project of my choice to a group of judges to show what I've learned throughout the three years. I instantly decided to design and develop a game. Unfortunatly when it comes to artwork and graphics design I'm at a complete loss. My main question for this post is what kind of tools and programs are out there that allow me to design simple 3D character/object models, textures, etc. By "simple" I mean somewhere along the lines of Runescape a couple of years after it became a 3D game. I have to admit that I'm not completly sure if I'm the one who's going to be doing the graphics of if I'm going to concentrate on the programming and ask someone to team up with me and help out, but wether or not I do the graphics myself I want to have knowledge of what kind of tools/programs are out there that could satisfy my goals.

If your reading this sentence it means you took your time to read my rambling and I thank you for that : D.
I hope to have some replies soon!

The only real 3D modeler I know of is Blender. It's hard to say if it's simple in and of itself, but it'll let you make simple models The only other modeler I know of is Maya or 3ds Max, but unless you have a couple of grand to throw at that kind of software, it'll probably be out of the question. Blender is free though

Why not just grab some of the free models and textures floating around the web and focus entirely on programming?

Here is a list of all current major 3D applications, a download link either for the full version or a trial ( often time limited ) and if applicable, their costs. A few programs on that list are completely free, but don't take that as a condemnation, Wings3D is an amazing modeling application once you get used to it, and Blender is surprisingly full featured, but it probably more work than you want to put forth for your needs.


Another slightly dated option is Truespace, which is actually pretty beginner friendly and freely available, but hasn't been in development in a few years.