Hi Robert,

Don't forget, Blender 2.8 also has a V-RAY type (unbiased) renderer called Cycles, which is wicked fast if you have a GPU or two. Like V-Ray, it is easy to setup and pretty much a one-button affair.

The Definitely EEVEE course has everything you need to setup your scene, light it, add materials, render and animate-- just change your renderer to Cycles and forget all the 'baking' and irradiance and reflection probes. In fact the included scenes in the course can be rendered in Cycles and/or EEVEE and the results are very close.

And...Blender 2.8 is free. Might be worth a look.

PS-- <rant>I absolutely hate the "hardware dongle" companies like V-ray tie you down with. If it breaks, is lost, is stolen-- you're dead in the water. I've heard some make you file an insurance report or police report. It's discusting. You pay for it and they treat you like you're the criminal. I would never work with V-Ray because of that one thing. </rant>