Starting My Sabbatical

I am about 2.5 weeks into a sabbatical.  I have a lot I want to do during this time.  My focus will be on two main areas:

• Completing my old west town 
• Learning Maya

I have worked on my old west town for about a year.  Prior to starting the sabbatical, I had about 90% of the modeling complete.  None of the texturing or lighting was started.  

I original started working on this scene for several reasons.  I often teach an Advanced Texturing & Lighting class and expect my students to build an elaborate environment to demonstrate texturing and lighting techniques using mental ray.  Second, I found I was demonstrating how to use some tools in 3ds max for modeling and texturing and some of the buildings in this scene just sort of grew out of those demonstrations.   Lastly, I have always loved western stories, environments and ambiance of that period.  

I am learning Maya mainly to expand my knowledge, to make myself more rounded as a teacher and 3D artist.  I am finding it a very interesting experience.   As some one who has used 3dsmax since it was in it's DOS days, switching to another 3D package has its challenges.  I know what I want to do often times, but the vocabulary and tools are a little different.  I am spending most of my time finding what tools are called and their locations.  I already have the actual skills.

Anyway, that is a quick summary.  I will be posting WIP here often.  I am also posting these on cgtalk.com as well.