I think you all have good points. Yes it only takes a one person to crush and idea. but keep in mind that sometimes it's the students them selves. I encourage the students to try things and if it doesnt work to adjust and try again. If your lost in how to achieve things, you may get frustrated and quite all together. It helps to have somone with experience let you know that maybe you are on the right path and if your close or not. I sometimes feel that I'm not there enough- but I am an active advisor of the team. But I also encourage them to do as much on their own to learn an try for themselves.
At the start of every year I have 10-15 students looking at me telling me that they want to be an animator. All I do is say great, give them a quick over view of the software, then hand them the tutorials and give them a deadline to get through as many as posible. The reason for this is two fold- 1- it eliminates the kids that arent really into it and 2- it gives them a foundation to work with and learn the foundation of the program. Then when I say try this or that or adjust this or that- they say oh yeah that sounds good. And i dont have to tell them what to do, why to do it and how to do it. They have the foundation and can do the rest themselves.
It is true that a professional that does this work day-in and day-out can help with concepts and techniques that you wouldnt know on your own. You wont learn in the basic tutorials and you need hard fast experience to get the nitty gritty.
There are resources you can try. These offer tutorials for you to learn special effects and other indepth techninques in modeling and texturing and such.
http://www.3dcafe.com
http://www.the3dstudio.com
http://www.autodesk.com (ofcourse)
http://www3.autodesk.com/adsk/item/0...123112,00.html (this is the link of tutorials sent to FIRST teams- they may be available to anyone though)
MENTORS have ties to the professional world that may lead to donations of time, money, equipment given specifically for Animation teams- Seek them out!