[Drakhonic_CZ]

I am a beginner in Maya, but I do have general knowledge about the tools, modeling, and some animation. The purpose of my post is to possibly get some input from any artist who wishes to respond to the following.

My goals include working at a major production company or game design company at least 1-2 years after I graduate from college. I have completed my A.S. in Fine/Studio art, and I am currently working on my B.F.A. in Computer Animation. I have an extensive background in drawing, and I am very computer savvy. The problem I have and need help with is the fact that I am attending the University of Central Florida... it appears their program is being revamped and is not up to par as I thought it would be.

I am seeking guidance or advice on anything in the Orlando, FL area varying from internships, the best resource sites for tutorials, information on what software is best to use if I want to enter the production or game design industries, institutes for training, or anything that would be useful information to a beginner.

I have already begun teaching myself Maya through books and tutorials. I made up my mind that I am not going to wait on the U.C.F. program to develop to advance my skills and learning experience.

I would DEEPLY appreciate any advice that could be contributed to my post. Thank you so much.

Drak

[eddgarpv]

mmhh.. well, then all you need is practice. I'm in mexico city but when i was @ university, I started reading the maya docs and also, i start with those tutorials in the maya learning book. That helped a lot but then, everything has been reading/practicing. Not only following tutorials, but also changing some parts while i was reading them.. that will help you a lot.

Your background is a plus for you. The general knowledge about computers is do what you want in order to learn. There's a lot of useful links all around, but the most visited and useful is http://www.learning-maya.com .

Try posting your wips in any forum you want and ask for comments and crits. Try going deeper into every tutorial you do and you'll start doing pieces of a reel. This reel can help you get an internship in your area.

About gaming, there's a very interesting place for you..
http://realtimecg.com/


Good luck