Thank you both, I will take these suggestions to heart. To do what I want I can't rely on stock animations but I know it will take plenty of time, which I am fine with. The few small animations I've done and posted up on Vimeo, each took time, my most recent exceedingly short one took hours.

I am studying the Animation Survival Kit right now. I'll look into the videos you suggest.

One think I do find frustrating is foot slippage for walk or pivit movements, even with a target modifier.

Quick additional question. Does Carrara have a dope sheet or will I have to move every key frame (select all the individual keys for each body part) to move or duplicate them?

Thanks for your patience.

fyi, here is that short little animation of my main character for the animation/story I am working on:

https://vimeo.com/55233755