hey, nice to meet you rhyj! :T
Is great that you are interested on 3d modeling and animating.
About those programs Im not sure (because I haven't use ).
Now coming to Topology, it can be very tricky, I even have problems with that, mostly seen referenses of how topology works, and it does come in play when rigging a character because when animating, it can deform not properly/as desired.
Well since modeling can be "hardest" at times when come to proper topology, all i could tell you is that is all about trial and errors.
Trust me, I get to fail several times even till now and keep starting over, even if you can re-orientate these polygons which you totally can, I just start over, but is not really needed (just find it simple to start over, and sorry if this isn't much of a help, Am yet not at an expert level... xD )
Although, reference points and seeing some topologies does help a lot on how to develop your model.
If you want, you can download my old models just so you can see how these are set, but are not really that great, these are on my old Dev Acc.
benja020.deviantart.com/well, hope you the best and welcome to modeling. ^^
(also, sorry for the late replay, not always log here, just happened that I was here for something tho. also just got this PC since yesterday, it runs smoothly, god I was used to the old trashy pc I had, but now everything runs instantly *w* )