ok I am pretty crap at modeling and my rigging and animating not much better but if I'd realized the bones I add in Carrara port over to iClone, I would have gotten 3dX4 sooner instead of settling for v.2!
I found Daz characters easy enough as expected but never thought I could make my own figures with right clickable motion clips, yeah ok they are chairs!
but you get the idea,
you don't need 3DS MAX or other pricey modellers!