I figured I might as well get comfortable with 3d software since

>>2869147
Depends on what kind of "designer" you want to be.

it'll take you years to git gud at real 3d, take it from me.

>>2869147
as somone who struggled to try and learn blender and failed 3 times, my friend suggested 3ds max and i was able to learn it in about a week with this tutorial series

https://vimeo.com/3dtotal/videos/search:beginner's%20guide%20to%203ds%20max/sort:alphabetical/format:thumbnail

note i only learned the program, i didn't miraculously know how to make good models, make good textures or rig properly, that comes with a lot of practice (and probably some more indepth & specific tutorials) and it will probably take years as >>2869182 pointed out

thinking and modeling in literal 3d does actually really help with drawing and understanding form tho (just as how being decent at drawing and having an okay understanding of anatomy has made 3d modeling humanoid things easier for me)

as far as standards go, my friend who works in industry and helped me kinda figure things out told me that most modeling-- especially for games-- is done in 3ds max and maya is the main one for animation and that most people in industry focus on those 2 as well as zbrush if you're more specifically a modeler instead of an animator

>>2869147
>>2869252
>thinking and modeling in literal 3d does actually really help with drawing and understanding form tho (just as how being decent at drawing and having an okay understanding of anatomy has made 3d modeling humanoid things easier for me)

Anon makes an important point, traditional art fundamentals will help you get better at 3D and 3D will help you get better at certain aspects of traditional art in return.

Some typical "industry standard" programs are: Maya. Max, Zbrush, 3DCoat, substance painter/designer. xnormal, marmoset toolbag, marvellous designer etc.
There are so many and if you get into 3D you will find that while a lot of these packages offer similar features some do one aspect particularly well and you might end up using a program for just one feature. For example 3D coat can be used for sculpting, UV layout, retopology, all sorts but you might just want to use it for retopology and do most of your sculpting in zbrush, zbrush has a polygon modelling toolset but you might prefer to do your poly modelling in Maya.
What is most important is understanding the fundamentals of 3D so that the idea of switching between software isn't daunting to you because you already understand the terminology.
There is a steep learning curve though, but it's doable you can teach yourself using tutorials. You might want to start by having a browse through the polycount forums.

why is it so had to find a non-dodgy looking zbrush torrent. it's not like it's an obscure program.

>>2871656
cgpeers

>>2869147
I'd definitely becoming acquainted with ZBrush since it's one of the more art-based 3D design programmes, and it's industry standard like fucking everywhere to my knowledge. Maya for more traditional modelling techniques.

>>2871697
maya is shit for modelling lad. Modo is #1, max #2

>>2869147
-max is probably the most standard. solid tool, a bit slow and dated in comparison to some others, but very good.
-softimage is standard if you're a japanese game dev (though they discontinued it recently, pretty tragic. still used widely in japan though).
-modo has sick tools. never used it myself but the features give me a huge modeling boner. i think it's probably too much into complex modeling functionality for what you want to do.
-blender is free(open source) and is quite good. it used to be a very shit software, but the devs update it frequently and are actually willing to pretty fundamentally change it to improve it. now, i would honestly say it competes with max. in general i think its pretty easy to understand, easiest to customize to your liking, simple to find functionality, can be very fast to use, etc.
i would say max is ahead in certain things though. for example, "edit poly" is a modifier. in max, the workflow for modeling a mesh is a bit more non-destructive and modular, whereas in blender, editing a mesh is a mode, not a modifier. so you can't, for example, stack direct mesh edits in different orders, before or after other modifiers, etc. the workflow in blender tends to be a little more linear due to this.
depending on the extent of what you want to do, any of these software will work.
i might suggest blender just because it's free and what you learn can transfer to any other software since they all share most functionality.