Hi doc313, I recommend working through the tutorials in your Maya Help file, and reading lots of threads in this Maya Basics & Newbie Forum. Once you're familiar with the basics, start doing the tutorials on this site.

As far as 15 months being enough time to learn and create a 10 minute animation. Well, I think that depends on how simple your animation is and how quickly you learn but if you're determined enough, then yeah, you can do it.