Hello all, I finally got around to getting ready to embark on a new adventure in graphics. I have done photography prior to this and graphic design for websites (Photoshop). From doing photography, i have taken wonderful pictures of landscape, cityscapes and other artistic views of the world what we live in. Im also a huge gamer and love it to bits. I wanted to take my eye for landscape etc and create my own in 3d for "future" games and development. Because this is all new, i would like some quick guidelines to what i should be looking at. Firstly, what programs are most commonly used by 3d designers, free or commercial. Also, with these, what are the best tutorial websites that start with the basics from the programs and gently move further up. Thank you, if i have not put to much detail in the questions, please say so and ill re-edit them. Thanks.

If your looking at creating 3d models and scenes, I believe Maya and 3ds max are used in the industry along with photoshop for the textures.

If you don't have the money for either of them (i think they are in the $3000+ price range), blender is a free alternative.

Edit: Just read the rest of your post =). 3dsmax comes with a huge number of tutorials i think, which should take you from beginner to fairly advanced.

I've never tried maya or blender, but i would imagine maya at least comes which a few tutorials. In either case, a quick google should bring up tutorials for whichever software you decide to go for.

If you prefer books have a look on amazon.com and do a search for your software of choice. I know 3ds max and maya have tutorials written in book form by various authors. I'd imagine blender does too.