Hello,
So I've had a HANKERING to mess around in 3D for a while now but even with the simplest programs I've tried (like Platinum Arts Sandbox which is supposedly aimed at 8-year-olds and even Ray Game Designer 2 which must be like a decade old and seems p crude / simple) there is some kind of basic skill level required in modelling and so on before you can do even the simplest things. Also it's uh pretty forbidding to ignorant layman like me in terms of a ridiculous amount of software like Blender, Autocad, Milkshake or whatever it's called, which may or may not overlap or even work (are 3D0 files standard or DXM files or what??) not to mention things like shaders, meshes, skeletons. I have no idea which things are actually necessary and which are just to polish up the end result. Basically I am not completely averse to learning something new or expending effort but it'd help if I even had some kind of vague direction to go in so that it's not just "spend five years figuring out blender and another five trying to do something with it".

I realise this is a dumb request and I'm not asking HEY TELL ME HOW TOP MAKE 3D LIKE MARIO (although all advice on how top make 3d like mario will be taken to heart) but if there's any 3D guys out there I'm just wondering if there's any overviews / programs / tips you'd recommend, or even just to tell me whether 3D is something you can pick up without dedicating all free time to blasting through it. If it helps I have no ambitions as to quality beyond like this level of detail or modelling. Basically is there such thing as 3D for babbys?? get me from crib 

Forget everything else

Use blender and unity 3d

It works

ahahaha yeah dude a tutorial would be great!! i've already checked out blender and am planning on sitting down with a notebook and furiously ploughing through manuals until i'm able to make a 3d skull so an engine already built in sounds good. do you need python experience?? did i mention i'm a codebabby also

also Mince I checked out Unity3D and that looked really good too so I'm gonna try to brush up on that as well!

I've played with various 3D programs though I was never able to do much in them, but I remember Lightwave was the easiest to use out of the ones I tried.  I hated Blender with a passion because of its terrible UI, I'm sure it's good software if you know how to use it but fuck I think for a beginner you should be more focused on the 3D than figuring out software.

Modding currently existing 3D games such as the source engine could be an option for you too. I've been out the loop for too long to give any good advice. I'd say unity based on the pure number of distribution options it offers. http://unity3d.com/unity/licenses shows the breakdown of what you can do for the free version, I need to find time to do this. Adult life just seems to be taking away that time.

Blender wasn't made for complete beginners but anyone could of course learn it just with varying difficulty.

btw, the ui in blender 5 has been changed maybe due to the complaints.

I've been messing around with Blender and I actually kind of like it, or at least the Sculpt mode is a lot of fun to mess with. There's probably a lot of awful shit on the horizon when it comes to performance and texture stuff etc but I'm gonna try to stick with this for the moment. The UI is kind of awkward at first but it gets easier once you start following hands on tutorial things and not reading the giant blender tuts which spend whole chapters reeling off lists of hotkeys. After I get more comfortable with making shit here I'm gonna start messing with Unity3D! Thanks guys 

don't help catamites with this i think adding a third dimension to his games might melt his, my and everyone's brains

i guess you haven't played too many of catamites's games

i always confused catamite with the catacombite from knightmare

took me a second

As has already been mentioned, Get lightwave V 9, number 10 (if there gonna call it that) is something closer to Maya in the way it works from what I've seen and Maya is a lot more difficult to use.
Light wave is better for beginner's mainly because of how uncluttered it is, the modelling and animation is split into two separate programs allow more space and overall making it far less cluttered.
 3DS max is worth learning but only because it's a big one in the game's industry but the best of the best has to be Maya as it's extensively used in both gaming and CGI for films.
Once you get the basic 's down it's not that hard to move from one two another.

My suggestion is to first get acquainted with the basic terminology of 3D so then you know at least what your on about. Then get a hold of a 3D software (i suggest Lightwave). There are many, MANY tuts for people who don't know on the web, look for stuff on you tube for vids there are several good introductory vids that will teach you about the program itself, after that it's just experimentation and learning from tuts.

EDIT: *sigh* that reminds me, i have to download Maya 2010 since that's what they use in the labs, they might be upgrading over christmas but still, i'ts halla anoying to download another program when i have one i can use but i can't becuase i'ts the version above.

you should use qbasic. qbasic is the best way to make a 3D game.

http://www.squidoo.com/qbasic3d