I have not done a whole lot of such things myself, however Photoshop CS3 has 3D capabilities, also Autodesk software like Inventor, also you can get a Maya based renderer like Renderman or Renderman compliant software
If you just want to create/clothe & pose a model, try using "poser". It is the easiest way to create a 3d person, musch like customization in a video game but with complete control in all aspects.
I've played with Poser before. It's pretty neat, but I can't do what I want to do, which is create Anime characters. To do that, I think I need something that I can use to create the model from scratch. Yeah, I know, that's a lot of work!
with gmax, you can create your own models from scratch, create anything from a box to the most complex thing you can think of and animate it in one simple package