[Henry Anthony]

3ds Max is one of the deepest, fully functional, professional 3d apps available. There is no easy way to REALLY learn. Sure, you can goof around and render some primitives but to really learn it will require a strong committment on your part. I've talked with people who say they have become productive in a week but when you ask them how they like the IK (inverse kinematics) implementation, they look at you like they have been insulted.

Do all the tuts you can find. Also, sorry to say, read the documentation and then reread it. Buy books and read them. Find forums and read every post. After a year of this, you should be able to say you are getting a good start in Max. Don't forget that there are many plugins that take a good amount of time to learn as well. Then there is mocap (motion capture), texturing (you will need to be an expert in Photoshop, rendering (there are whole programs separate from Max for this like Brazil and Renderman, and compositing in Premier, Shake, and Inferno among others for starters.

Believe me, I am not trying to discourage, but don't go into this thinking it will not be work and that you can just "pick it up" by fiddling around. It will be work - but satisfying in the end and well worth the effort.

Live it, breathe it, go for it!