I'm really curious about learning some neat 3d animation using Blender. Has anyone played with it before? What kind of learning curve can I expect? How much "artistry" needs to go into it? That is, let's say I want to animate someone falling... do I have to handle every frame myself, or is there some ragdoll physics help at my disposal, etc.?

I'll probably just install it and start going through the free wikibook that's available and messing around with it.