Sascha Walden

Hi. I recently started learning modeling with Cinema4d. Has a reaally nice and user friendly interface, which i liked. I listened to the basic tutorials made by Greyscalegorilla which were quite useful.
However, i want to make Games and Movies with cool creatures.
For that i need to model and rig stuff.
People said, it doesnt rlly matter if i learn max3d or maya, both are good, maya might be better for the coding aspect..

My point is i dont really know what houdini is for. I hear its great for CGI and VFX, as in “It has great stuff like Water-animation where you normally need plugins if you use max3d. Or fire simulation” And in general it can create cool looking stuff, like colorful, dancing, furry humans and so on..

People also say that maya is used for character rigging, animation etc., which confuses me.

When youre completely new.. where the fuck do i start? Do i learn how to model my stuff in max3ds for games, since faster output, or in maya and then import it to houdini to add cool looking features like rivers??
I dont even understand how big a scene should be, or can be. And this makes me feel pretty uncomfortable right now, not knowing what to learn with which software.