I have an Canon XL1s and want to experiment with creating SFX in some shots.

Explosions, rain, maybe even some morphing.

What is affordable (for PC) that the a layman can genuinely LEARN in a reasonable amount of time?

Thanks

I think this thread (http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?s=&threadid=6102) will be of interest to you.