G'day Doom, good to have ya. My advice, have a good read of the manual, check out some of the tutorials here, on animanon.com and on anim8or.org, ask questions on the forums, etc, but most importantly, just experiment. It does not matter what you make, post it in the WIP section. People here are friendly and encourageing, and offer advice freely. We are an inclusive bunch, and there are often group projects and contests going that are lots of fun and very educational. There is currently a newb group project underway, there are links to it on this site, and they are always looking for participants.
As colclough said, we are all hobbyists... I suppose pros would be using Lightwave or something expensive like that. Just remember, Anim8or is a work in progress, being built by one bloke in his spare time, so there are a few gliches, and gaps in the manual. He relies on the Anim8or community to test his upgrades as he progresses towards the ultimate goal of Anim8or version 1.0, and in the meantime we get to play with this awesome piece of software. Good deal, huh?
Following the trend of username pronunciation and explanations (kicking myself that I didn't pick the whole falloffalot/helmet thing) my username comes from my Ensoniq SQ80 synthesizer, which sits beside me as I type this, and was the first thing my eyes alighted upon as I tried to think of a name. I dunno where the "5" came from...
