Yet another modeling program thread...

#1 at your budget there is program called milkshape ($35)exports pretty easy. Uv mapper ($59.95) to do your alpha's with gimp 2.0 (free), add shadermap pro ($19.95) to make fakey normall maps from your textures not perfect but cheap.

Grand total looking at : 114.90

not a pro set up but will work

Note: Daz Pro is free right now be great to animate and add normall mapping in there then export in collidia

Hope that helps

#2 I use Milkshape($35), Ultimate Unwrap3D($50-60) depending on the version, and Fragmotion($50). Like Tom said, it's not a pro setup, but it works good enough to get the job done.

Milkshape is a decent low-poly mesh maker, but I use it mainly because there's a pretty good dts and dsq exporter for it. Milkshape is not too good at doing animations, so I use Fragmotion for that. Milkshape also isn't too good at unwrapping, but UUW3D is pretty easy to work with and does a great job. UUW3D also imports and exports a lot of different formats. Both Fragmotion and UUW3D both import and export Milkshape's native format, so it's pretty much a seamless translation from model to dts.

As far as graphics, I use photoshop cs2, but Photoshop is not cheap, about 600+ dollars, but not as bad as the thousands for max and maya.
I don't like gimp, it reminds me of blender, fairly powerful, but difficult to use. Paintshop Pro, which can be bought for fairly cheap(30+), is a good graphics program and easy to use. Paint.net is another good graphics program and it's free. I use it mainly to convert tga files to png, but I guess I don't have to do that anymore with T3D.

For less than $200 you can have a very nice indie setup. As your means improve, upgrade as you can afford it. Good luck, I hope you find the right setup for you.

#3 Silo is really quite awesome (great interface, lotsa speed, good tools) but its development has stopped quite a long time ago plus given it is really mainly "just" a dedicated modeller, I personally wouldn't quite recommend spending money on it (Edit: for being your primary tool that is). Also, it doesn't support Collada which means that exporting to Torque involves a detour via a separate app (UUnwrap3D is great, but still, it's an extra step).

With the budget you've set yourself, I'd recommend sticking with Blender and spending the money on other tools. It definitely has a really solid modelling toolset (plus boatloads of other stuff) and AFAIK it can export to Collada out of the box (the little experience I have with that, though, has been pretty bad but it's been some time and maybe things have improved). Blender's not my cup of tea but given its breakneck pace of development and stuff you get to see and hear about it, the fact that it has become a rather powerful all-in-one-package probably remains uncontested.

If you want to go beyond your set budget (yet not to the insane levels of XSI or MAX), then I can only wholeheartedly recommend modo. It's interface is pure bliss and there's so much good stuff in it. Plus it can save to Collada natively. And its painting and sculpting tools, while nowhere near ZBrush level, definitely have become pretty amazing too.

#4 For great Blender-to-T3D information check out Rex's threads - The guy has been back and forth with Blender and really knows how to get stuff from Blender to T3D.

#5 There's a real gap in the market for a $300 modeler. It jumps from free to $1000+. The cheapest option for a good all-in-one package is Cinema 4D I think, but even with a discount it's $900.

Daz's Hexagon modeller is free right now and does a similar job to Silo (modelling but not animation).
www.daz3d.com/products/hexagon/

Houdini HD is $99 and the license says you can use it commerically with Torque. But it doesn't export Collada files.
www.sidefx.com

For non-commercial use Softimage Modtool is excellent.
www.autodesk.com/modtool

#6 Sculptris is another free one for sculpting/painting.
www.pixologic.com/sculptris/

#7 Well, I have been reading what you all are saying as well as researching myself. I think I will just stick with Blender for right now and try to learn its rather complex user interface. I am sure with enough practice, and with the right books, I will be able to learn it eventually. Would anyone recommend any books for Blender?

#8 I dunno about books, but if you're more comfortable with a Maya/Max-esque interface(which seems to be the gold standard for modeling programs), in 2.5.x and the recent 2.6 series of releases, they've had a full interface customization ability with a maya preset.
I personally have been working on a 3ds max preference setup, and while it's not done, it may be a little more comfortable for you. If you'd like to take a stab at the super-pre-alpha setup of that preference style, let me know and I can upload the file for you to play around with.
I'm trying REAL hard to replace my love of max with blender, simply because it generally feels like a better tool. It's just the interface people gripe about. I figure getting a solid max interface preference made would make both my life, and many other budget modelers lives easier.

Anyway, yeah, let me know if you're curious, I can get you access to the file.
(Oh, and like BigDaz says, I fully recommend you try out sculptris. It's pretty slick and has the added bonus of being free).

#9 Okay, thank you for that info Jeff, and thank you to everyone else for being such a great help to me!