forgot to mention - when the maya master class's from this years Siggraph becomes available (i think A|W are going to release them on a DVD sometime soon) then definatly snap that up.. I've seen some of the content and its incredible. theres a section on rigging by Jason Schiefler (who i believe worked on LOTR) which stood out as being particulary good - lots of nice little time savers and usful insights on how to go about doing things