you have to assign the material to the plane
go in the hypershade
do your texture (import your image)
minimize the window(hypershade only)
select the plane
open the hypershade window do assign material
(you can just click on the two square I dont remember the name... but to have a smaller window instead of a full screen)
then... when its done
in your maya modeling screen
hit 6

supposed to work.. if it dont well... try to assign the material again and press 4,5,6 (4= no texture, 5= grey I think..., 6=texture)

hope it help

ho and... no need to pay to learn there's a lot of free tutorials everywhere the one you're doing is great
but for animations some give you a model and tell you how to bone it and animate (rare.. but some do it)