*"The trick is to not get overwhelmed"

*Boy do you got that right :) For all the advise you'll get here. The best I can give you is 'play with it'. Learn to pose a figure first, get some of the free textures here and about for your figures.

Learn the zen of downloading, LOL. You'll be doing a lot of it :P

But play with it. Make pinups. Pinups are the acapelo of artist. 
When you read the tuts and books you'll have a little 'frame work" to understand them. 
And THAT will go a long way :)

Like everything else, the details really arn't all that complicated, but there are a butt load of details. :D

geo