I've been trying to learn how to model, rig, and animate my own character for a long time now. It's been a lot of self training. Thankfully there is a lot of material online. Work takes up a lot of my time so learning has been taking a lot longer than I want it to.
One thing I know for sure is I can't wait until I know enough to fully create a character without having to worry about learning the process of making one. WORKFLOW, that's something that I'm trying to create and memorize. Once I have my own process down I think can produce a lot of work.
I think that level of knowledge will give me the confidence to start and finish more and more personal projects. Hopefully after that I can get a job and ultimately be where I want to be. I want to do this stuff full time. Working with a studio is the main goal.