How to represent a gameobject's (x,y,z) rotation as a quaternion?

Here's the full code that I have for both camera changes. I ultimately want to zoom in (position) on the camera's parent gameobject, and rotate from (35,0,0) to (15,0,0) to "look down" onto the parent object

Currently, the rotation still isn't changing at all, and the position I$$anonymous$$$$anonymous$$EDIATELY becomes the end position, doesn't gradually move over time. If I ins$$anonymous$$d do timeTakesToZoom * Time.deltaTime for the local position lerp's duration, nothing happens at all

 //swoop in/zoom in over 1 second to see the char
 float timeTakesToZoom = 1f;
 //lerp the original camera's position to the zoomed in RelativePosition
 post$$anonymous$$atchCam.transform.localPosition = Vector3.Lerp(post$$anonymous$$atchCam.transform.localPosition, new Vector3(0,1f,1.2f), timeTakesToZoom);
 //lerp its rotation to the final rotation
 Quaternion fromThis = Quaternion.Euler(35,0,0);
 Quaternion toThis = Quaternion.Euler(15,0,0);
 float degreesPerSecond = (35-15) / timeTakesToZoom;
 post$$anonymous$$atchCam.transform.rotation = Quaternion.RotateTowards(fromThis, toThis, degreesPerSecond * Time.deltaTime);

As mentioned, this is not a from/to use. Your code should be:

 float degreesPerSecond = (35-15) / timeTakesToZoom;
 post$$anonymous$$atchCam.transform.rotation = Quaternion.RotateTowards(post$$anonymous$$atchCam.transform.rotation, toThis, degreesPerSecond * Time.deltaTime);

And you need to set the initial rotation before you start executing this code:

 post$$anonymous$$atchCam.transform.rotation = Quaternion.Euler(35,0,0);

You have to use the current rotation as the first parameter of the RotateTowards(). Note that you can do a FromTo kind of rotation with Quaternion.Slerp(), but then you have to create a timer so that the last parameter cycles from 0.0 to 1.0 over time.

 //swoop in/zoom in over 3 seconds to see the char
 float timeTakesToZoom = 3f;
 //lerp the original camera's position to the zoomed in RelativePosition
 post$$anonymous$$atchCam.transform.localPosition = Vector3.Lerp(post$$anonymous$$atchCam.transform.localPosition, new Vector3(0,1f,1.2f), timeTakesToZoom)
 //lerp its rotation to the final rotation
 post$$anonymous$$atchCam.transform.rotation = Quaternion.Euler(35,0,0);
 Quaternion toThis = Quaternion.Euler(15,0,0);
 float degreesPerSecond = (35-15) / timeTakesToZoom;
 post$$anonymous$$atchCam.transform.rotation = Quaternion.RotateTowards(post$$anonymous$$atchCam.transform.rotation, toThis, degreesPerSecond * Time.deltaTime);

I tried making the rotation this AND tried using slerp, and neither did anything. And the localPosition lerp is still happening in one frame rather than over 3 seconds... I don't understand this :/

The problem is that the assignment of the original rotation cannot be done at every frame. It needs to be done once at the start of the rotation. Take a careful look at my example code. I set the original rotation in Start(). Then you use RotateTowards() each frame with the current rotation as the first parameter.

...still not working (I'm so sorry to keep bothering you. Really do appreciate the help)

I added this to my Update()

 if(movingCamForVicDance)
 {
        float timeTakesToZoom = 3f;
        Quaternion toThis = Quaternion.Euler(15,0,0);
        float degreesPerSecond = (35-15) / timeTakesToZoom;
        post$$anonymous$$atchCam.transform.rotation = Quaternion.RotateTowards(post$$anonymous$$atchCam.transform.rotation, toThis, degreesPerSecond * Time.deltaTime);
 }

and changed my IEnumerator to this:

  float timeTakesToZoom = 3f; //IF YOU CHANGE THIS, ALSO CHANGE IT AT THE BOTTO$$anonymous$$ OF UPDATE
  post$$anonymous$$atchCam.transform.localPosition = Vector3.Lerp(post$$anonymous$$atchCam.transform.localPosition, new Vector3(0,1f,1.2f), timeTakesToZoom);
  movingCamForVicDance = true;
  yield return new WaitForSeconds(timeTakesToZoom);
  movingCamForVicDance = false;

so that the rotateTowards is called in Update ins$$anonymous$$d of the IEnumerator, its first parameter is set to the gameobject's rotation, and the initial rotation (35) is now assigned in Start()

But STILL the position lerp just immediately puts the camera at the resulting positionr ather than panning over the duration, and the camera doesn't rotate whatsoever