riggify makes rigging a humaniod just a matter of clicks, all the bones are already IK'ed etc just scale an tweak a bit, then the automatic weight painting is fairly good so unless you need perfection its done  (its prob in your addons but not turned on)

or theres blenrig that looks awesome (keep meaning to have a play with that)

if you like landscapes try the boids particles to make a flock of birds, I lost a full day just making boids fight rofl, or use the hair particles to make grass

and get yourself into cycles its awesome and if you have the right graphics card its really fast but it dont at the mo' work with particles

so much to learn so little time