Modifer is little different, I played around in the modifer settings and find out I had to change the mode to complex to get the thickness otherwise they were just to plane when the mode is set to simple
That is not true!
You must have done something wrong! Depending on what that is, that might (and probably will) get you into trouble later on!
Try to figure it out (check for 'double Vertices' and so), or post a link to your .blend file here in this thread (upload it to Dropbox, Google Drive, or any file-sharing service).
Just to be clear: in the new Solidify Modifier, 'Simple' is the same as the standard 'old' Solidify Modifier!
I didn't do that one yet, but I'd definitely give it a try if I were you.
I think you can learn animation without knowing too much about modelling/shading/rendering/etc...You probably wouldn't even need to be able to do your own rigging...
Should you get stuck along the way, because you are missing some other fundamental knowledge, you can always return to the necessary courses to fill in the gaps then...