Hello guys,
I am completely new to 3D animation and want to learn.
Can you advise me on how and what books/programs to start with?
I hope I get a reply.

Hmm, welcome to the 3d realm, but you gat to know its for the seriously minded and determined people o because i can assure you, your faith or i say your determination will be tested for it, you will be fustrated, you will want to give up and learn other stuff, but if you go head and overcome that, you will enjoy animation and 3d in general.

As for software to use, the two leading best softwares are 3Dmax and maya, there is no point going over the difference but Maya got more egde in terms of animation and other aspect to 3dmax and also got a heavy learning curve and less free tutorials online while 3dmax is very easy to learn compare to maya and you got tons of free tutorials online to help you get started as oppose to few maya tutorials and got loads of plugins to make your life easier. I will advise you kind of get the two softwares, try them out for a week or two and then make your decision on which software you will go for.

Visit http://forums.cgsociety.org (you just cant do withit it), register there and you can view links to many tutorials and even post questions there, the average time of your post being replied is likely less than 5mins(trust me on that), so to me, it is th perfect place to ask questions and get kind of real-time feedbacks.

As for books,programs and video tutorials, when you have made up your mind on which software you want to you, put comment here with your email and i will forward you some resources i got.

I hope my little contribution help.

Welcome to the world of 3D!!!

Big thanx for this one

@a2j, am really interested in learning with 3dmax, i will appreciate it if you can send some of the video tutorial to my email

kehinde@ieg1.com

Thanks

You can checkout https://leinadstudios.com

They are currently in Lagos and they can accelerate your career in 3d animation