A list of resources...

As this is the "Carrara" Figure project, I am going to assume you all have Carrara...

Carrara is considered a "full" 3D application, meaning it does modeling, rendering and animation. In theory, one should be able to do their modeling, rigging, texturing, animation and rendering all within Carrara, but I have found few who exploit these features. I am one of the many, I do my modeling in Hex, 3D Coat or ZBrush, and I only render stills, even though I incorporate posed figures in almost every image/scene I render.

Maybe Carrara is only part of your main work, and while the "main focus" of this project is to be able to do everything within Carrara, it would be irrational and prejudiced to withhold information regarding other tools, programs, utilities and workflows...

Hexagon 2.5 - I have become very fond of this program, it's a great modeler, simple and easy to use.
3D Coat - I grabbed this when I couldn't afford ZBrush, and only played with it. After realizing the power of Voxels, this program has "replaced" ZBrush for me. Not saying it's better, but for me, it is just too awesome...
ZBrush - Let's face it, ZBrush is as awesome as it gets. High resolution morphing and modeling
Sculptris - Voxel freeware offered by Pixologic.
Wings3D - Great modeling application, and best of all, it's FREE =D
UVMapper Classic/Pro - Awesome for mapping. Carrara has it's own set of mapping tools, but always nice to have options.
Gimp - 2D program. Free, with Photoshop like features.
Pixia - Another 2D freeware program.
Adobe Photoshop Elements - Of course the Elements line. Very affordable and reliable.
MapZone - A node based freeware texture generator...
Genetica - Another texture generator...
MakeHuman - This program "makes" humans =/ Some versions can pose them as well. From personal experience, I can say you can import a rigged MH figure into C8Pro WITH bones intact... Interesting to say the least...

I'm not mentioning other programs, Poser, Daz Studio, Blender, Vue... Those are somewhat "off topic", and arbitrary... Why'd MakeHuman make it to the list?!? The point is to make a figure for Carrara by importing "any" mesh and apply/attaching a joint system to it while embedding other Carrara features to it. Once imported into Carrara, it's bone system is "converted" to a Carrara system and is no longer a MH joint set up... This is not the case w/ Poser or Daz Studio figures, they are still using a MetaCreations system, for lack of a better term...

Bottom image: mmoir modeled in Carrara
Top image: 3DAge modeled in Sculptris