Milkshape is quite powerful and inexpensive. It is easy to use, good for texturing models, supports many file types and provides free plugins. It was designed for Half-Life and is thus meant to be used for game models unlike Blender which is more for rendering and creates models with incredibly high poly counts. Which isnt good for games.

I had considered blender as an option but having tried it (as a modelling noob) i couldn't understand it! (not that i understand most of gmax mind you...) The game modelling extensions could be very useful however - if people are likely to make use of it an importer/exporter could be written in c and used in a python script...

+++ out of cheese error - redo from start +++

Xtreme Team Studios

Milkshape isn't a great modeler, but it's specifically designed for import/export duties, can work with Gmax content, and supports things like poly-by-poly skinning, DDS textures, tiled mipmaps, and other things that are specific to modern game models, as opposed to Blender's "try to do everything" approach. And while it's not free, it's certainly affordable. I wouldn't model with it, and don't.

If you don't have much money, and want to make game models, get Gmax, and then download the Quake 3 model format plugin, which allows to to export the models to Milkshape... and from there... to almost any format in common use today, such as OBJ, 3DS, DXF (shudder) or LWO. Gmax is a serious, professional-grade modeling application... Blender isn't even close.

If you have some money... and are a student... you can get Rhino3D for a very reasonable price. Rhino3D is what I use... and it's a professional-grade modeler, with a very easy learning curve, very high precision and hundreds of modeling operations. It's the easiest and most powerful modeler I've ever used, and I've used everything from Maya to Infini-D. But it does cost over $100, even with a student discount, so it's not free. Gmax is better if all your making is low-poly game models anyhow.

That's the thing- Gmax + Q3 Model Export Plugin + MS3D = awesome. And for the price of a single seat of MS3D (Gmax is free), you're getting more import/export tools than just about any other app. on the planet, including dozens of specialized game formats... and you're helping to pay a guy who's been responsible for making a lot of the great game mods, such as Counter-Strike, technically possible, not some giant corporation.