I've had trouble wrapping my head around how to properly model and animate a cartoon-style snake. I don't know how to get a good cartoon-style scale pattern, although I can make a reasonable base mesh. I also don't know how to animate it so that it looks like it obeys physics. What CG cookie videos are best for understanding how to go about this?
Wrapping your head around, I see what you did there. But no, that is very specific, best you can do is learn all the basics and find out a way to accomplish your goals. There's animating a spider video, just in case:
As with most things in Blender it depends on how much control you want. Full Rig is powerful but needs more work. This video can help you get started.
https://youtu.be/SXjDOSdk0jo?si=KGlZEs68fQ-Dj9y8
This video https://youtu.be/FWLFeyOvHMM?si=VgTA1gFPdieM716q Covers Modeling, shading, and a more basic way to animate. When he covers texture painting you will of course need to use simple colors to give the cartoon look vs the more realistic texture that he uses.