Don't forget Blender, it could become the new Standard in the near future with the 2.8 so it is worth learning it in depth and it already starts to be used in AAA games like those by Epic Games and Blizzard (but mostly by independent external studios that do their skins and special events updates) and it is very popular in…
Mark Dygert: of course Blender does that, those are basic features, I don't think you will miss any modeling tool of 3ds max in Blender: extrude along a curve with a profile and curve spin. There is several videos on how to create non-destructive models with Blender's modifiers here and this tutorial. And the UV mapping…