Handcoding is the thing.
I started out just like you, about 7 months ago, with no use of modelers.
I handcoded a picture for IRTC round Horror, and it came out 27 of 110.
All the help are found in the documentation.
Go through the turorials, and look at some other peoples work, it helps a
lot.
Good luck :)
--
Peter
http://hertel.no/bigone
