Gee... to compare the quality of MAX and Pixels3d, I took a look at the galleries on the sites. The images on the Pixels3d gallery,
here , suggest that its renderers and shaders aren't too powerful. If you take a look at a MAX gallery
here , you can see what I mean. So I woudn't want to bash the quality of MAX so much. I've played with Maya, but I don't like the interface and tool set too much (I havn't run it since Maya 2.5), though it may be more powerful.
I'd say the best way to start with MAX would be to start at page 1 of the tutorials book if you're not familiar with the interface, and then doing most of the tutorials in the book starting with the still life, even though they may seem so easy as to be worth skipping. The order that the skills are taught seems pretty good to me.