Learning 3D Animation

If it wasn't 6:10am i'd be a bit more expansive; maybe later. People have given you some interesting advice here. What can you afford? That has to be the most important question.

Maya and MAX cost a lot of money. They're both very capable packages but Maya is not what i'd call a good application for the beginner. Now, some will come in here and swear by Maya but they are probably people who have had some form of formal classes in using it. There's a saying that goes: "Maya makes difficult tasks easy, but simple tasks more difficult".

MAX is the program I use the most and is probably easier to pick up; functionally these programs are about equal. Any of these, or another such as Lightwave or even Blender (Blender has staggering fluid-dynamics now, they need to be seen to be believed) will teach you the principles of 3D. These principles are common to virtually all 3D software; the biggest complication is the different interfaces - trying to get the thing you're using to do what you want to do.

If you're worried about the cost of learning, the only real costs you have to incur are those of time (the longer you spend with something the better you'll get) and the initial outlay of purchasing the software, unless you go the free ware route. Most 3D programs come complete with full learning resources so if you don't mind using a compiled help file or PDFs, you don't even need to get a book.

If you want to animate, what is it that you want to animate? People? Machinery? That will dictate what skills you'll need to build up in terms of modelling objects as Devo said. You say you draw so that's good. It is possible to learn to animate without having to model anything at all though. I wouldn't recommend it, but it can be done. Expressive and diligent animation can bring life to something as simple as a twig, a ball, or an angle poise lamp >_>.

Jam it back in, in the dark.