How should I approach modeling?

[dario]

I have never made a sophisticated model before. I posted about making a beanie babie in another thread, and I think I will hand animate it, like buddy suggested. How should I go about modeling one? We are going to use a panda bear shape. Should I use one piece and move vertices or attach spheres together? I remember seeing a tutorial where they made a bear by creating a bone rigging and then applying some modifier to add some "meat" to it. I have no clue what to do and any help would be greatly appreciated.