I would say the best way to learn maya is

1. get 1-1 training if you know an expert that is easily bribed

2. there are schiools and certification course but they are very expensive and unless you are a serious professional I doubt that is a viable option.

3. get video tutorials. It's much easier to watch and repeat then read a paragraph and look at a usually poor quality before and after image. I have some really expensive books on maya and most of the time I end up getting really frustrated because in one page they show a cube and then there are 4 sentences and the next image is like a fully sculpted model!

4. There are lots of free web based tutorials floating around. You need to do some web hunting and bookmark the sites.

5. books


and I agree with all the other posters that said it is all about practicing ALOT. I would also say pick one package like Maya and stick to that package only. All the packages offer basically the same tools. The key is to learn the workflow using one package. Master that package.

I tried learnig 2 packages and in the end I ended up unlearing both. I got all the GUI keyboard commands scrambled and ended up having to hunt through pull down menus.

Remember the user interface is just like playing a musical instrument. Your fingers have muscle memory. After a long session with Maya I find myself trying to alt-mouse click to zoon and pan while in a web browser! LOL

Good luck and stick with it.

The tutorials here are a really good place to start. Kurt B has a bunch of really good kits that cover modeling and texturing and even rigging and animation tutorails. His workflow is consistant and is a good pattern to learn (it's all about workflow).

The only thing he does that I could critisize is he does tend to do a lot of mesh tweaking between sections. But considering the volume of really top notch videos that Kurt puts out and the extremely reasonable cost of the packages and it's only a minor gripe.

For starters I would suggest the Tie Fighter poly modeling tutorial to learn the interface then try Kurt's free dog organic modeling tutorial then Kurts Dragon modeling tutorial. They are all easily done by a complete Maya novice and by the time you complete those you'll have a solid handle on 90% of the modeling tools in maya. The rest is all about lots of practice and seeing patterns in the way to build efficient and clean meshes.