Anim8or Community

I wouldn't expect to get 9-10 min. episodes done.  You'd be surprised what you can fit in 1-2 minutes and how long it actually takes to use up that much time and make that much animation.

Looks to me like the second render just doesn't have shadows turned on.  Could be in the preferences like Dragonslayer said or perhaps the actual objects/lights

All of this is already doable in Anim8or.  The thing is you have to use actual vertices and faces and edges.  It's not as simple as grabbing something and moving it around that easily.  If you're talking about sculpting (programs like Zbrush, Mudbox, Sculptris) then it's very doable with those programs, but they don't have any edge looping or good topology.  In other words, they are great programs for still objects, but when it comes to animation and rendering in other programs they're awful (unless you retopologize, or give them a good structure basically.)
There's a lot to learn, but 3D cannot be that easy, to be honest there is no way.  I think the closest you'll get are sculpting programs (sculptris is a good one to start with, as it's very simple and free.)

Select the single frame (should be selected in white) and you can press ctrl+c to copy or ctrl+x to cut and ctrl+v to past where you want.  You can do this with blocks of frames as well.  Also, know that in scene mode, the actual speed may lag.  You need to render to see the real speed of the animation (also, the fps or frames per second matters for how fast the animation moves, and it can be changed to what you want.)

If you want a model with its texture files, I would recommend packing them all into a .zip file and uploading that.  That way when we extract it all the files are already together!

Think about what normal apartments have.  They're set up to fit the basics.  So think about what the different rooms are.  It appears to be a bigger apartment, I've seen one similar to this.  The main room would be a living room, though in apartments they tend to combine to be a kitchen as well, so one side would have cupboards and counters as well as a fridge, dishwasher, oven, etc.  You'd want a couch and TV in that room.  One or two of the rooms would have to be bedrooms as people live there and need a place to sleep.  Lastly a bathroom, everyone needs a bathroom.
That's my recommendation!

I honestly doubt you'll find a tutorial tailored specifically to the exact model you want to make.  The tutorials are there to teach you the skills of modeling.  The techniques and the thought process and how you actually model.  Follow these tutorials that teach you the skills.  What you want are tutorials on organic modeling.  Modeling people, animals, creatures, etc.  All of these models will translate into creating a dragon for yourself.
Tutorials teach techniques of the art-form, master those and you can then create your own art like the dragon you want to make.

You have to select the object that has the modifier bound to it (I'm assuming you selected both and went "Build>Modifiers>Bind Modifier"
This step only shows you what will happen if you effect the modifier, you haven't actually finished applying the modifier yet.  That step is there so you can play with the modifier and get the shape how you want it.
Next, you have to select the object/modifier combination and go "Build>Modifier>Effect Modifier"
That will get rid of the modifier but leave the object in the form you want.  You can then bind your next modifier and effect it.