i learned through watching some gnomon tutorials. i dont think i could have learned without them. unless someone showed me. but i dont know a soul that uses maya. and i live in LA!!!

i tried around maya 5 with only books and gave up. now i feel like i can also model anything. until i actually start modeling it at which point, i realize how long it's gonna take. ive been modeling a couple hours a day (sometimes as much as 6 hours in a day) since november and have yet to complete a whole character. i have a dozen half finished characters.

the books only became useful once i had an ok knowledge of modeling. so for me it's been video tutorials and forums.