It is beginning to feel natural to use. There is a lot going on here, and I am in no way kidding myself that I understand even a fraction of everything possible. But the tools are starting to feel like they are in the right place, and I'm starting to be able to put 'thought-to-animation' a whole lot better.
I've been a bit cranky at times, so forgive some of those posts. And many people have answered questions that were necessary for me to understand to get to this point. Thanks very much to your advice!
What I came here to mention, though, is something I'm finding very cool.
Almost universally, what is rendered EXCEEDS what I'm seeing when I'm editing! Of course this makes sense since the editor is basically real time and the rendering can take it's time to...well... render. But it also means whenever I'm satisfied in the way my animation looks in the editor, I'm just blown away on how good it looks when it's rendered (I speak here of high resolutions like HD)!
So if you are just getting started, and you happen across this post, then I'll just say that the steep learning curve is both necessary and worth it!
