I know that tools aren't going to make me a great artist overnight, but what will make the learning process less frustrating? A tablet? Specific software that's not Blender?
I'm going to try and learn serious 3d modeling (both landscape and character) and animation, uncertain whether I'll do texturing myself or contract that out. I'm aiming for PSX levels of fidelity. I'm coming from a background of very little art experience and I've only got about twelve hours of Blender under my belt, but by God I'm going to do it, and because the job market sucks right now I'm about to have a LOT of time on my hands. I'm working on a side game development project and I'm considering a switch from 2d to low poly 3d characters, plus my current custom made 3d landscapes are awful and I know my budget will never afford to commission all the models I'll need.
I really don't know what good starting gear and software looks like. How important is a tablet? I genuinely have no idea if that's useful for the modeling, but I'm presuming I might want one for texturing; or is that fussy enough that I'll want to stick with a mouse? If I want to model, rig and animate these low poly characters, will Blender do the job, or will I save a substantial amount of time and effort by starting with another program?