i can say that both of those models were sculpted first, then made the low poly version as the final item. 

you should check out the animation course here in cgcookie, they start with the principles.

also the 3 courses you listed are what you need if you are going for cartoonish characters.

Don’t be scared of sculpt approach. 🙂 there are far scarier things in world than that. 🙂

I wouldn’t say sculpting is required, but it may be beneficial if you wanted to create more intricate details. Sculpting gives you the ultimate freedom to create all sorts of unique shapes and details, but with enough skill you could probably replicate a lot of that with traditional modeling as well. 

Yeah it’s a little scary at first but, ask yourself, what’s the worst that can happen? Risk to life and/or limb? Nah. It might just come out a little wonky at first, right? Oh well. Try again. 🙂 

There’s a billion articles and such about this, but they all boil down to: “Don’t be afraid to fail.” 

Society and our own brains keep us from new things because we might “mess up.” We see all these awesome sculptors and such and our brains say “You could NEVER do that. Imagine the embarrassment! Stick to X, which you already do. That’s safe.” There’s a certain thrill to putting those thoughts in the trunk and defying them though. Believe me.

So, cool thing about 3d sculpting I’m learning from doing the “Sci Fi Helmet” course…(Which I’ve been on for way too long because consistency isn’t my strong suite. Heh!)

It’s not something you can really “mess up.” WORST case scenario you have ctrl-z, but honestly? You tend to go over the same spot with different brushes, smooth things out, play with them constantly until they look right. It’s not unforgiving like say, oil paints, or…welding…?

EDIT: Forgot to mention the coolest part. With box-modelling, it’s all about precision, and planning topology. It can very much start to feel like “technician” work over artistry. When you sculpt, you’ll end up with a lot of interesting ideas you might not have even thought of before, because you don’t have to plan so hard.

“Happy accidents!” as the late great Bob Ross would say.

It gets a little zen sometimes. I think you’ll be surprised. 🙂 Sorry to sound like such a fortune cookie, but I do hope you try it and let us know how it might have differed from your expectations. 🙂

You just have fun with it, refine, refine, refine some more, then you go over and “retopologize” it to make those sexy low-poly models like you showcased above, ready to be thrown into game engines and such.

GL:HF!