Complicated portfolio

Hi all,
Was hoping someone here can point me in the right direction to create this seriously complicated (from my view) portfolio gallery. I am not an actionscript guru by any stretch of the imagination and I’m a bit lost as to where to even begin with this…

Here’s what I need:

  1. All images pulled from an XML file, except the XML/AS needs to be able to read directly from given folders (images, thumbs, subthumbs). I know this is possible from reviewing SimpleViewer.
    In fact, the xml file with this program is remarkably simple. The thumbnails aren’t even listed in it, they’re pulled directly from the thumb folder.

  2. Two sets of thumbnails (thumbs, subthumbs), similiar to this site (click on “People” for easy reference).
    When a user clicks on a primary thumbnail, the rest of the set for that model should come up somewhere to the side, where they can then click on that and that primary image comes up. Make sense? =)

Of course stuff will need to animate, but I’ll worry about that later. =)

Thanks so much in advance for any help/ideas!
cheers,
~Michelle