Have you tried adjusting your BPC to a higher setting. Default in ae is 8bpc. You can change this to 16 or 32 (with a render speed hit) by pressing the alt button and clicking on the 8bpc icon on the bottom of the project window.
All the above is true but if you are interested in great results you are at the right site. I started with AE 7 about a year and a half ago. With training from the cow (their free online tutorials) and this forum you are defiantly able to learn to be proficient (notice i didn’t say master). If you are considering the package download the free trial from Adobe for CS3 and follow along with some of the tutorials. Andrew Kramer has a boot camp training at his website https://www.videocopilot.net. I hope this info helps.