Get halfway through a model and find it's an unworkable mess? Can't add edge loops where you need them? Can't subdivide a mesh properly? If any of this sounds familiar check this course out.
I did this short animation of a boxing dude for a project a while ago. There are plenty of things wrong with it, but I thought I'd share it for your enjoyment anyway. It was my first Maya model and animation.
I had to lower the quality significantly to get the size down (it's in DivX).