The Learning Maya books are great. The Foundation book gives you a good start, then there's the Advanced Modeling and Animation, and Special Effects and Lighting books. I have all three for Maya 7, and was able to buy all three in one spot for a relatively cheap price. They walk you through projects step by step, and provide a dvd with all the scene files as well.
Start with the online help. Seriously. it has a whole set of tutorials that will give you as much info as your average "beginning maya user" book will, but you won't have to spend 30-50$ on it.
Once you get through the included help tutorials then check out an advanced book in your specialization of choice.
Replies
The Learning Maya books are great. The Foundation book gives you a good start, then there's the Advanced Modeling and Animation, and Special Effects and Lighting books. I have all three for Maya 7, and was able to buy all three in one spot for a relatively cheap price. They walk you through projects step by step, and provide a dvd with all the scene files as well.
Once you get through the included help tutorials then check out an advanced book in your specialization of choice.