Autodesk Maya Personal Learning Edition
Quick and Fast: NOT FOR COMMERCIAL USE! PLE is exactly like the pro version of Maya, but your renders have an annoying Maya logo overlaid on top. While it’s a good way to learn Maya, you won’t be able to use PLE for real 3D jobs.
Where to get it: http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/mform?siteID=123112&id=12035483
Maya PLE is a great way to learn Maya, one of the best and well known programs in the 3D industry. I learned Newtek Lightwave 3D last spring, so I’m a little biased towards that program, but Maya is great and I see why so many use it.
Tutorials: There are resources for learning Maya all over the web. The best way to get the basics down is the little training movies inside PLE itself. Go under Help > Training Movies when you’re inside the program, or the movies pop up as the default when you open up PLE. I also recommend watching the tutorials on www.CreativeCow.com by Varomix and the ones on www.lynda.com by George Maestri. Both of these sites, as well as the training movies got me going pretty quick, making 3D stuff inside of Maya.
License: You may not use Maya PLE for commercial purposes. In fact, the welcome screen says “Not for Commercial Purposes”. PLE is strictly for learning before you buy the pro version of Maya. This is the reason for the overlaid logo on top of your renders.
Demo: Below is a logo I made following the creative cow tutorial by Varomix, which I gave you a link for above. This is to show you the overlaid logo on top.
