Autodesk: Maya,Softimage,Mudbox,3ds max

Hi guys,

Thanks for making this forum available, I'm from South Africa and the backup and support we have here for 3D art is none existing to say the least. Hope I can get some creative and motivating critic from this community.

I have started self training on mostly 3ds Max(on hold now) and Maya(Actively using/learning) for 3D modeling, and hoping to in the future move to rigging, texture and animation. I'm currently making use of Lynda tutorials(e-learning).

After I read through a couple of your forum post, I realise maybe I'm using the wrong packages.

I would like some guidance into which packages I should use for what aspect I'm currently busy with(Modeling). I read up on Mud box and Softimage and both of them also seems good for modeling and adding materials/texture to the characters.

The proses(stages) I would like to end up with is drawing the character in plane view(2D-This I can go), produce and 3D model for "still" purposes but move it into different posses this includes texture adding(This I would like to master before I move on) and then finally be able to make a 5-10min animation, this includes rigging and animation.

I would pref to stick to max 2 packages as it takes a lot of time learning a 3D packages, and if possible stick to only one.

Thanks for the input and hope the year goes well for everyone.

Vortexx