some questions from a noob

[Goon]

well, in the hopes of lessening your initial learning curve, I would suggest downloading and using wings3d (its free, and is an excellent polygonal modeler). Or, since you are a sculptor, maybe you would be interested in purchasing zbrush (watch this: http://prymevalgraphics.com/martin_krol_vids.htm), which is about as close as you are going to get digitally.
Tutorials for wings3d: http://p212.ezboard.com/fnendowingsmiraifrm3.showMessage?topicID=249.topic
Wiro's Head modeling tut: http://www.secondreality.ch/tutorials/tutorials.html

But, since you have maya:
www.learning-maya.com for all your tutorial needs

You can load an img file (including jpegs) into Maya's and Max's viewports and use them as reference when modeling. There is also software that allows you to take several photos of an object and produce a reasonably good model from it (if that was what you are asking). But most models are produced by hand, or for those with access to a 3d scanner, from a refined version of that data.

And for box modeling workflow:
http://cube.phlatt.net/home/spiraloid/movies/movies.html
http://cube.phlatt.net/home/spiraloid/tutorial/index.html

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