Guardian G.I.: I use Zbrush so it's very similar to traditional sculpting with clay plus the software complexity of Maya and its own. It took me a month to become comfortable with the interface but then I had a ton of fun with it. I think in 3D so sculpting is relatively straightforward to me but if you don't have that kind of thinking it's probably very tricky.
If you are familiar with traditional sculpting I'd suggest using
Sculptris. It's a free and highly simplified version of Zbrush, so it's very ergonomic and easy to get used to and it will give you a pretty good idea of how what digital sculpting is like.
I do use a graphic tablet in Zbrush however the mouse is more adequate in Maya because they are completely different work processes.
And if you're curious, this is what the interface looks like (with an earlier stage of my sculpt):
And this was my step zero, lol. I started this character from a box and had the eye ball done first:
http://gallery.smirtouille.com/15/Zbrush.jpg
