[sygterm]

I am also self-taught. I just took little steps. Started out with figuring out the basics (basic animation, cameras, lights, etc), and as I thought of things that I wanted to be able to do, I learned how to do them (particle systems, advanced rendering, environmental effects, etc). 3dbuzz is a great website as mentioned before, 3dluvr.com is also a good resource. When I was trying to learn to do something new, I usually tryed to figure it out on my own first, and then I would use a tutorial or reference 3ds Max's Help file to help steer me in the right direction.