Maya 8

Maya 8 is shipping and Maya Personal Learning is free for download

All is need is to fill out a form. And then you may download

The system requirements are:


Hardware
Minimum requirements for 32-bit versions:
Windows: Intel® Pentium® 4 or higher, AMD Athlon XP® processor
Macintosh®: Power Mac® G5
1GB RAM
CD-ROM Drive
Hardware-accelerated OpenGL® graphics card
3-button mouse with mouse driver software
450 MB of hard disk space

Minimum requirements for 64-bit version:
Windows: Intel® EM64T, AMD Athlon® 64, AMD Opteron® processor
1GB RAM
CD-ROM Drive
Hardware-accelerated OpenGL® graphics card
3-button mouse with mouse driver software
450 MB of hard disk space

The Maya 8 Personal Learning Edition has limitation but is very good use to learn:

Almost every feature found in the full commercial version of Autodesk Maya Complete™7 including:


New character rigging and animation technology including full body inverse kinematics (IK)
Advanced Autodesk® Maya® Trax™ non-linear animation editor
Full dynamics system including soft and rigid body dynamics
Complete particle system
Autodesk® Maya® Paint Effects™
Autodesk® Maya® Artisan brush based interface
Toon shading capabilities
Adobe® Photoshop® integration and Adobe Illustrator® connectivity
Four renderers: Autodesk Maya software, hardware, vector and the award-winning mental ray for Autodesk Maya renderer
Polygonal, NURBS and subdivision surface modeling
Comprehensive documentation The ability to import and export FBX files to and from Autodesk® MotionBuilder® 7 Personal Learning Edition