Experimentation Set Up

For the purpose of getting to grips with using Maya 2014 - I thought it would be best to get started on looking for copyright free characters so I can attempt rigging them, skin them and then finally animate. This way I can learn how to do it and not to mention see just how long it takes.The link to the page is: http://www.3dmodelfree.com/models/26741-0.htm

The first image I came across was one of a mech (see the image below):

 
 



(the mech model I found from a copyright free website)











The reason why I won't be going with this for my experimenting is that the poly count on this model is dramatically high - too much detail in places where it's not needed, this cause the lab computers and my laptop to slow down using the software.

I looked on for another and found a another model, this one of a female character, and the poly count isn't so high it would not slow down the computer or the software too much. I hope to start experimenting with the software using this character soon, the software is running on my laptop which means that this should be happening sooner rather than later. The link to the original model can accessed via this link: http://animium.com/2012/09/cartoon-character-3d-model/

(screenshot of the character model imported into Maya)