when I was into 3d gaming (failed miserably) I used 3ds max in my opinion it was better then maya. Currently on and off again I'm learning how to use Light Wave for 3d film animation, but its been a while since I'm not studying in school yet for it.
Ther is this great community I used to hang out and share my work
3D Buzz they have a huge community with helpful people tons of tutorials and a section for video tutorials it helped me out alot.
linkThere is another site I know of where the pros actually hang out (i'm very serious the people who actully worked on the cg of movies like star wars, finding nemo, shrek, and video games like metriod prime, final fantasy to name a few hang out there), I'll post the link when I find it.