As you have read, there is so much that Autodesk Maya 2011 can do. It has many tools that have been developed over the years to cover the needs of today's professional artist. Whether you are a modeler, rigger, lighting artist, animator, or all of the above, Maya has everything you need to create quality art. For the hobbyist at home, this program maybe a bit expensive to start learning 3D, but if you are student, an academic pricing of Maya is not out of reach for you to afford. You can be confident that the experience you gain learning Maya 2011 will be to your advantage as you pursue a career creating computer graphics.
Autodesk Maya 2011 is an amazing piece of software. It is an industry standard that has been used for countless features and games with astounding results. It takes some time to get comfortable using the software due to its specific workflow and endless options, but with the abundance of books, videos, tutorials, and blogs available to the user, it shouldn't take long to get up to speed. Maya can be quirky sometimes in its performance depending how big the file is, the system your running, and the plugins you have installed, but its nothing that can't be worked around or fixed if it should ever happen. For anyone wanting to take the time to try their hand at any of the above listed jobs a computer artist may concentrate on, Maya is a great program to have access to everything that you will need to create fantastic work.
