In more sensible words, the course was great - about seven people, which was great because even when the tutor had to talk to us individually, it didn't take long. There was a mix of people - mainly student-types, one arty guy who was sketching when I came in, and said he had experience animating stop-frame, and a couple of people who... really, it's great that you've got ambitions, love, but honestly, go and learn how to use a friggin' computer first, pls? Grrr. And the guy who turned up an hour late, and sat next to me with his headphones on, and who turned out not to have even applied for the course and had just turned up on spec... he can fuck right off.

We spent about 45 mins with the tutor registering us on the system, talking about the course, and then we pretty much launched straight in. We learnt how to create some basic objects (spheres, cubes, and planes), zoom in and out on them, shade them, move them, change size and scale, and give them weight, mass, gravity. Then we finished up by learning how to render it (i.e. turn it into a movie - a Quicktime movie, in this case). 

I ended up with a 96-second movie of a ball dropping into a collection of cubes and balls of varying heaviness, and everything bouncing around and dropping off the screen.

'Twas very exciting. *g* Then I went home and played on my version (Maya have a free 'Personal Learning Edition' for download), and discovered all the differences between Macs and PCs, and between the Personal Learning Edition and the full version that the college have. *little sigh*

Fun. Lots of fun.