Maya LT, Substance Designer and Painter Indie versions should be enough of a toolkit to become good using standard tools for environment art. You probably need to use Zbrush if you are looking to be a character artist. Houdini isn't required for anything, although it's nice in it's own way, and there is a free version. I…
I'd agree Houdini isn't in demand yet, regarding a studio system environment however the indie scene has seen a certain level of traction for procedural game development. Anyway wouldn't be a complete waste of time IMO revisiting your interest at a later date after firstly, as mentioned getting too grips with industry spec…
What I'm going to do is just use what I have for now. I have experience with Maya back when I went to school for Animation. Bought a license for XSI then Autodesk decided to kill it a year later... So the plan is to keep up with Maya on the side, and eventually subscribe to Maya LT. In the mean time work on my art with…