You need to be at least somewhat familiar with programming. It is a very powerful tool in the right hands since it is a very mature programming language.
The biggest downside is absence of SMP (present in 3.7 beta though) whitch does not allow to use multicore machines in full. Because complex scenes require a lot of calculations, rendering them may take a lot of time which is a necessary price for realistic results.
The biggest downside is absence of SMP (present in 3.7 beta though) whitch does not allow to use multicore machines in full. Because complex scenes require a lot of calculations, rendering them may take a lot of time which is a necessary price for realistic results.