Yeah you can say that, to fully exploit it you have to practice a lot, however MAYA was my first tool on which I learnt VFX, that was the time when Digit provided MAYA PLE 8.5. It is a difficult tool to learn but the rewards are great. If you are new to 3D I would suggest MAYA, I am not sure if they provide PLE editions now, you have to buy it now ( Very Expensive ). If you can afford it, go for it, otherwise there is always Blender, which is great since 2.5th version, I use it test my shaders. Great tool, easy, loads of tutorials online, open source, should fulfill your needs.
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