Subdivision modeling with polygons is essentially the same concept as splines (creating algorithmically smoothed shapes from a limited number of control points)

Subdivision modeling with polygons is essentially the same concept as splines (creating algorithmically smoothed shapes from a limited number of control points). It's been around since like the 70s -- the Catmull-Clark (yes, those Catmull and Clark) subdivision algorithm was invented in 1978! And it's been the main way of creating 3D models for film and games since at least the mid to late 90s -- ever since 3D workstations got powerful enough to display polygon models in realtime and games started using normal mapping. For films, the first major studio production to have made use of it seems to be Pixar's Geri's Game, and Gollum from the LOTR trilogy is sort of famously held to be the last character from a big movie to have been made with the older NURBS modeling tech. It's extremely powerful for organic objects like creatures, but complex shapes and objects combining sharp and smooth features can run into problems with polygon flow and topology where the smoothing algorithm will run into problems. So I'm not saying it's the complete solution to what you're looking for. In the last 10 years it's been increasing replaced by digital sculpting techniques, which make use of the same math but tend to get around the problems by throwing a lot more polygons at them. Bundled with a suitable UX there's probably a lot of potential for something elementary-school-level-yet-powerful in those. Feature-wise the most powerful at the moment is ZBrush, but the esoteric interface and workflow is probably preventing true mainstream adoption. Seriously -- you thought Blender was unintuitive? But ZBrush is used in like every game and animation studio, because nothing else comes close in terms of tools and performance.