I've been playing the Tekken series since the 3rd game but for all its worth, I've never really gotten passed square one in terms of learning curve. Maybe it's because the only reason these games got into my shelf is to be the token party games when such occasions arrive so I've never really taken them all that seriously. (all my friends apparently love this series to death)
 
Anyway. Now that I have slightly better appreciation for fighting games (thanks to a certain game that I really liked), I decided to start from scratch again and play Tekken 6 with a new mindset. What I'm basically asking for is if someone could kindly give me a few hints and tips when trying to learn how to use a new character. Given the huge move lists that these guys usually have, I'd like to find out the ones I should focus more on so I won't have to waste time on useless stuff.
 
Any help would be much appreciated.

in terms of what moves to use, just watch some matches on youtube. 
 
Yes characters have huge movelists but a lot of them are simple and logical (want a low kick , press down and a kick button right?)
 
Soon you will be inputting moves without ever thinking "So its back, forward, then down, etc" 
 
For movement, dont just hold on forward or backward. tap it twice and initiate a sidestep
 
so like back, back, up   forward, forward, down , etc . or just back back or forward forward if you want.
 
if you are from a good distance, double tap and then hold forward to initiate a run.
 

 
Remember, this is a 3D fighting game. There are moves out there that can be sidestepped. If you sidestep an attack, you leave your enemy vulernable.
 
Comboing...you can either experiment yourself or watch  Ghost computers and people on youtube to find out combos

So I tried my hand at learning Xiaoyu again. tekkenzaibatsu.com is apparently a really good source when it comes to these kinds of stuff so I learned all the basics of starting aerials and the like from reading the very helpful posts there. It was easy to learn the BnB stuff I read but then I got into one bit of a problem when I tried sparring with a moving target: Is it just me or is the AI countering all my moves with the reaction time of a split second? I'm honestly having some 90s Mortal Kombat flashbacks all of a sudden. It's not exactly a game breaking problem for me though but it IS forcing me to use all the cheapest and fastest moves in my arsenal just to keep the AI from counter-attacking me so, in a way, I'm actually learning less.

props at starting on learning a character with over 100 moves on the movelist lol.
 
Yes tekkenzaibatsu is the best site for anything tekken related. 
 
the AI is both crap and cheap.  Ultra Hard mode is basically the computer knowing every move you will input so its pretty much a frame battle.
 
If humans fall for a certain move (again tekkenzaibatsu or watch a match on youtube)  but the AI doesnt , thats a ok move to put in your head.
 
Tekken's computer is NOTHING CLOSE compared to fighting actual human players that can change their style of play instantly and know how people react to their character's moves.

" props at starting on learning a character with over 100 moves on the movelist lol. "

" the AI is both crap and cheap.  Ultra Hard mode is basically the computer knowing every move you will input so its pretty much a frame battle. If humans fall for a certain move (again tekkenzaibatsu or watch a match on youtube)  but the AI doesnt , thats a ok move to put in your head.  Tekken's computer is NOTHING CLOSE compared to fighting actual human players that can change their style of play instantly and know how people react to their character's moves. "

make sure you know some frame data as well once you get better.
 
 http://iamtekken.com/frame-data/
 
check it out. Might be too much at once but hey knowing how to punish people can easily be the difference between a win or a lost

Thanks, I'll keep that in mind.
 
 In another topic:
 
You know your lag is bad when you get punked out by the same cheap spam move you can see coming from 9000 yards away EVERY. SINGLE. TIME.
 
*sigh*...Oh well. I guess I should just pretend that the online match up choice doesn't exist because I sure as won't ever be able to use it properly. >_>