I am aware that i could probably figure most of this out on my own with enough googling, but does anyone care to share a fairly simple explanation of the difference between 大きい and 大きな? I've seen other adjectives that function both ways as well, but I can't think of any other examples at the moment.

Help?

Meaningwise there's no difference at all. There are some instances where native speakers are more likely to use 大きな (i.e. 大きな声) but no absolutes that I'm aware of.

From what some Japanese people told me (take it with a grain of salt), though the meaning is virtually the same, 大きな and 小さな tend to convey more emotions. One example I was told is how 小さい simply states the fact of something being small, while 小さな can, depending on the context, mean cute... or anything else that is emotional.