Maya and 3D resources online.
Highend 3D http://www.highend3d.com/maya/
3dbuzz http://www.3dbuzz.com/vbforum/sv_home.php
Maya learning resources from the company: http://www.alias.com/glb/eng/community/about/index.jsp

Cartesian coordinate system http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cartesian_coordinate_system
Perspective http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perspective%2C_Visual
Perspetive -linear http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linear_perspective
perspective –atmosphersc http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmospheric_perspective
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Landscape_painting
very good paper on distance and perespective http://www.visiblespace.com/phdtext/cadepaper.html