I just wanted to add that aside from all of the tutorials they have online for Blender, there are at least two books on Blender. One is called character animation with Blender and the other I believe is call Essential Blender. You will also need a paint program for texturing
Photoshop is expensive but there is one called Gimp. It is free and better reviewed then some other paint programs. Take a look at the link
This is a movie made from Blender. You will see particles for smoke, hair,etc. Motion blur,
voluminous lighting, etc. blender also supports sound, sync, has a physics engine a game engine,etc
YouTube - Elephants Dream
Take your time learning and have fun. It was hard for me when i first started but once you get going it's great. I know of some professional artists that use maya, and 3d studio max but prefer Blender
Below my webpage the 2d art was made with Gimp, and the 3d art blender
http://digitalart.wmn.cc/
workerbee