Any 3D graphic artists out there?

[CrystalKitten]

I know I've heard of some people that do various graphic work, some are going to school for it, etc. I was wondering if anyone has any experience with 3D modeling. More so, the texturing. I can do the models, and I can paint the textures, but it comes to the actual materials and settings within 3Dsmax to make things look great. I've tried looking up tutorials, but a lot of them seem to already assume you know a lot of the material stuff, and usually just use basic things like "use this kind of material"... and then that material has a dozen settings with no advice for what they do.. >.> Anyone have any advice, or guides? Also any on rigging/animating would be pretty awesome too. As I said.. I can generally get the models down pretty well... But ... well... No details, but I never got to learn much on texturing/animating

Edit: I've decided that I want to try and make a creature/character that will have just about every texture I'd ever wanna use, as a practice. It's probably gonna be rough... but if I can find a good guide, or person to nag with help, it should be pretty fun.