Thanks a lot for the responses guys. The intricacies of cinematic techniques do not worry me. Stuff like continuity, editing (i know adobe premier), voice acting/dubbing, and writing are within my control.

Personally, what worries me is the technical aspects of Maya as well as the time needed to learn to do what I want with Maya.

I know that me personally doing something to the equivalent of Avatar is just not going to happen. Again, personally my goal is to create and render a movie the equivalent of high-def video game cinematics.

Stuff like:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-wKL...0918&index=100

and

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KT40h...0918&index=101

and maybe even this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYSCgdfgtFk

My main worry is two things.

1. Cinematics such as those were created probably through a massive team of people. Which means it might be impossible for me alone to create animation of that quality.

2. I've found some private made animations and the best one I could find is this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QDql...eature=related

No offense to the creator, but there's a lot of things I can pick about that video. According to a few chats, the guy who created that video is a "professional" animator. So...if someone who is a professional can do THAT as his best. What chance do I have to create animation the quality of Mass Effect or Final Fantasy?

Personally, I want to hope that through dedication in learning Maya as well as dedication to create movies I will be able to within a reasonable amount of time (by reasonable I'm thinking about 1-2 years of hardcore tutorials and 1 year of solid work on a couple of 20-30 minute films).

I hope that's more specific for you guys to answer my sentiment and concerns