– Sign up for a Lynda account (if haven’t already done so) with your New School ID. It’s FREE!

– Go through this 1.5 hour long Lynda Tutorial: http://www.lynda.com/Maya-tutorials/Maya-Essentials-1-Interface-Organization/96714-2.html

– Model a super-sexy chair in Maya (like the one in the image below)! … while modeling your chair, focus on the following:

• create and manipulate different polygon models
  • Note: make sure your Maya is in Polygons Mode: 
  • Create polygon primitives like such: 
• get comfortable with switching between polygon selection modes (vertex, face, object, edge) … you can do this by holding down right-click on the model and dragging over the appropriate mode

• experiment with the settings in menu link Display > Grid … you can mess with the settings by clicking on the rectangle on the right side of menu link … 
• use the hotkeys Q, W, E, and R to switch between manipulation modes (select, move, rotate, scale) … you can do the same thing by selecting the mode from the left toolbar 
• Play around with Snap to Grid setting …  … to use the grid for building symmetric models with fixed unit sizes
• Lastly, get familiar with extruding faces …  … from polygons:

– Add some extra stuff to your maya scene… play around with modeling in polygons!

– Get a jump start on modeling with Polygons by starting this Lynda tutorial: http://www.lynda.com/Maya-tutorials/Maya-Essentials-2-Polygonal-Modeling-Techniques/96715-2.html