I have downloaded the Maya PLE a while back (getting watermarked through my skull) Before this I have used blender, but after a bit of research found that although it is a good program (being open source), it seems to be a far cry from investing in a commercial package.

I have been in Design (from Graphic Designer to Goldsmith) for a number of years (about 8). But lately, the market is trending toward 3D graphics.

Software I use: Photoshop, Illustrator, Corel Painter, Blender(also Dreamweaver, Flash, In Design etc. )

My question is simple. Maya is a monster. Is my time and money going to be wasted on a program that ends up being a 2000k hobby? It takes up to a decade of your life to get reasonably proficient. It's almost a better idea to get back to university, study medicine for 7 years and... well, I'll feel more sure of a job than a portfolio full of poly-houses and sub-div creatures (Demo Reel included). Time is money.

Also, it's competitive... to the extreme. Young kids in school take advantage of their free time to develop the skills neccesary to get a good job early on. I still have a full time job (which I love, but still).

Oh yes, an idea came up to me. What about using Maya for architectural presentations. The whole South Cape region in my country is exploding into a city scape. I know they use CAD but if someone is willing to invest money on presentations for clients that would give them a VERY good preview of what the building would look like, inside and out... then make changes as they see fit - use the 'render' as a billboard preview on-site... dunno.

Basically I need a little direction in crossing over to 3D... I am 30 years old (not married) and with reasonably good artistic skills (sculpturing to drawing)...