I took up the task of creating a 3d version of my school for my tech project. The only problem, is that I have to use Blender (along with Unity3d of course). Now, I do have experience in Autodesk Maya, but I can’t use that. How long would you say it will take for my Blender skills to be the same as my Autodesk Maya skills?
Presuming you have decent 3D skills it should be quite easy, just slow going.
roughly translated: the rest of your natural life… Oh, and I’d get use to sobbing and asking WHY? (do try and put some feeling into it, it’s pointless to wail one word if others can’t really feel the anguish of pointless hours of thankless toil to get that last, simple piece in place, only to have it go to pieces or simply refuse to work. Some artists just never consider others when they wail.)
Blender has not been my friend 
Cheers,
Galen
I learned blender in about 2 weeks I’d say, there’s tons of free tutorials and it’s a very nice program. (I now prefer it over 3ds max for what I do)
Blender was, however, the first 3d program I learned…So it may take more or less, since you already know the basics of modeling. But that also means you have to break your habits of hotkeys. 
Meh. Here is a video of an animation I did after a couple days with Blender, years ago (way back before they even had proper undo). I started following a tutorial and went…off script. 
It’s not exactly Pixar 
, but it’s not “move box from point A to point B” either. Blender is really not anywhere near that hard, and in fact I quite enjoy it (except for the parts I hate).
–Eric
Hmm… It may take me a long time, for I only have about an hour a day. But thanks!
Probably take you about an hour a day, then…
I find working with Max, Unity, Photoshop or any other package it’s a learning experience the whole time,
even if I am doing things I’ve done many times, it’s all somehow different in my thinking (unless it’s just repetitious stuff)
and I perceive it as something new, so something learned in that session.
But, the experiences are accumulative, so that’s helpful…
Pretty funny, Eric! : ")
Blender is dang sweet - I have very little 3d experience, but could put together a few crude things after a few hours. The biggest drawback is the UI is a nightmare. I learnt most of what I needed to by spending a some time going doing tutorials and watching youtube videos about it.
Considering you’re into making games from a long time (and seems to continue in this way), I would suggest to save some money if you can (week end jobs, christmas, birthday, etc) to get the cheapest version of Cinema 4D. A wonderful, powerful tool ^^
The UI is NOT a nightmare, it is designed for people who watched the UI grow up. It will take a while to learn, but the extensive use of hotkeys makes it WAY faster once you get used to it.
My experience: from zero I managed to make my first resonable quality textured rigged animated model in blender + gimp in 5 months.