Heyo! This is pretty cool. You may want to check out dustinbrown's thread and his gradient technique: http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=100806 Might be something worth playing with for this. Even if you don't go with that, baking a self-ao map for these would be nice.
heyo! im starting right now im just starting on the gun if you go to my blog you can see the progress. also in the video archive it saves all the videos :) game art stream starting in 10 min cheers! http://www.twitch.tv/dinusty
UPDATE JAN 4 2013: Heyo! I've got 8 Firefall Beta invites! PM me your emailz if you wanna get on dat! http://www.firefallthegame.com/ Red5 Studios has announced their new online team-based shooter Firefall! Kotaku Gameplay: http://vimeo.com/14580971 Cinematic: http://vimeo.com/14628833
Heyo! Regarding "skills vs software", I believe skills are more specific than software knowledge and therefore can target a job profile in more detail. E.g. if you were to apply for a weapon artist position, the skill hardsurface modeling directly relates to the job. In the end you could have both categories, skills and…
For the sake of completeness, if you somehow decide that you'd rather be making 2D games, here are a couple of beginner friendly engines: Yoyo Games - Game Maker (Pro version is going from $25 up to $40 at the end of the month) Scirra Construct EDIT: Stencyl - Make flash games.