frank, I´ve read bout a zillion of tutorials from the net. but most effective medium is DVD. I started with the free section here, bought some points and got me Kurt´s "Organic Modeling I" DVD. get as much video tutorials as you can afford! whatever you are interested in -> watch out for a tutorial. best places for tut´s - start here, don´t miss mike´s side (https://www.mtmckinley.net/) and have a look at Gnomon. Alex Alvarez really rocks and pushed my skills the most in my first year with maya. if you are interessted in organic/human modeling like me -> stick to Tareq Mirza (bought his DVD "Organic Modeling I - Human Anatomy") - you won´t find any better material for modeling a human figure, except the godfather of CGAnatomy - Steven Stahlberg. and I can tell "GI Modelling" from Jason Edwards is a great tut for sure. alltho I´ve not seen it by now, if it is even half as good as his advises to me from past it is twice worth the money.

if you want to work your way through all aspects of maya - start with modeling (in polygons), cause that´s a fundamental thing.

I started learning maya in september 2004.


jali, well, this is what I´d tell someone else - it is funtamental philosophy. but in reality life is not that easy... or is it? I don´t know