@gutendog Me too! In Australia, People just care about Sport, education, health, engineering, science, community service, and life. But they almost completely ignore the importance of 3D movie and Gaming Industry. Even if they have some, but not that much at all. North America, Europe and Japan are very good at 3D and Gaming Industry and it is expanding rapidly. More and more companies (Movies and game Studios) need more artists with a different background.
The companies (AAA or indie) don’t care you are using Blender or Maya. And they will train you to transfer your skills from Blender to Maya. The most important things to get you hired is your portfolio and your skills.
I am so glad I signed up CG cookie ($80 for 3 months vs $300 per month from some other schools!) for 3D animation. the school is trying hard to mimic the program similar to standard 3D game school where may cost you thousands of dollars. For me, due to financial problem, I can’t afford for any 3D game school (online or on campus) anymore. CG cookie is my last hope to get my skills flourished in animation.
Even though I am mainly an animator, I have some sorts of level of 3D modeling (as supplementary) , here they are: 🙂 
