Heh, damn, confused already! As far as I can see it, MEL scripts are essentially plugins built using the native Maya language?

Strange, I thought Maya had one of the most powerful toolsets as standard? Oh, well, beats learning Max!

I would recommend Cinema to anyone new to 3D, it's interface is untuitive, well laid out and easily customisable. To be honest, I've invested time and money in Cinema, so it seems a shame that it's one of the packages that has yet to be used for serious film and game work. Unlike Maya, to get a copy, even for learning (none of this PLE goodness!), you have to pay. My educational license set me back about £450 for Studio 9.1, and then they release a dedicated hair module! Gits!

Is Maya hair fast? I've used Joe Alteres Shave and a Haircut for Cinema, but my system specs aren't the best in the world (xp2600+, 1gig DDR 3100 RAM under WinXP Pro SPII), so Cinema really chugs under the strain.

Oh well, I'm sure once I worked through the tut's I'm downloading from here I'll have a better idea what I'm dealing with! At least I've got the hard part of the 3D theory (poly flow, how B-Splines work, etc) out of the way. To be perfectly honest, the thing I'm really looking forward to is borrowing one of my mates tutprial DVDS on patch NURBS modelling! Perfect poly-flow, here I come! Cinema has a plugin equivelant, but damned if I could ever get the thing working well enough for organic modelling!

In case you hadn't realised it yet, I could tlak for England! If I start waffling, just tell me to shut the hell up, eh!