Best place to post questions is:https://polycount.com/categories/technical-talk Best software (personal): Blender 3D and zBrush for modelling. Texturing: Substance painter. Game engine is a toss up between Unreal 4 and Unity. Cheers
There's also Marmoset Toolbag, a fully featured realtime rendering suite, many artists utilise it's viewer when showcasing a particular portfolio piece/s too full effect. And for 3D digital content creation, as already mentioned Blender is more than a capable toolset for an introduction to 3D modelling, I'd recommend 2.76…