To get a good grasp of the buttons and layouts in Maya, check out Digital Tutors. For 3ds max I think Eat3d has a good one. CGtuts has a nice collection for both and Gnomon is there once you understand the basics and you're looking to enhance your workflow. Also 3dmotive has a good highpoly tutorial from the preview I saw.
Max tends to be preferred for modeling, Maya for animation, though they're both fully capable of doing just about anything you'd want. For sculpting ZBrush is the most used. For tutorials, check out eat3D.com, they're very good about explaining specifics. The 'Pillar' tutorial is a good place to start:…
If you are absolute beginner to the 3d realm than you should download the student version of the software and learn them before buying them. Now you have that sort of freedom. http://students.autodesk.com/ This is where you can download the software of your choice. I am learning Softimage XSI. To download the game engine…
Thank you. I checked the wiki prior to my post but the tutorials looked to expand on prior knowledge. I am looking to get a grasp on the fundamentals and very basics perhaps I overlooked I'll check them out again.
Hello Polycount I am not sure if this is the correct place to post this my apologies if this is out of place. I have been a huge fan of the site for a long time and have now decided to create an account and get my feet wet in the world of 3D art, But my question is...where to start? I have really no idea where to begin If…