Maya or blender ?

I would recommend Blender for beginners. Its easier to lean, and its more flexible.
And you can also use blender render farm online if you dont have a powerful PC yet. I will make the process hundreds of times faster, and you will have much more free time to learn and work on other projects. An online farm is a good solution for newcomers who do not have professional equipment yet and helps them achieve professional results.
You simply use the companys servers to do the job instead of your own PC. These servers complete thousands of frames an hour.