hi..i **am not a common animation geek- i am visual effects artist
but i can help you..

you need to be artistic in heart and have an eye for seeing animation in simple life forms like humans.
there r 2 types of animation -2d and 3d
watch my old demoreel at and click on showreel
salary- starting $13 /hr
skills – can develop
how many people- not many, many start to learn then jump out soon..only true animators remains..
pros&cons = you can be famous like disney or after learning it can sit in basement to get an interview call

Unsurprisingly, New York University and University of California, Los Angeles, are the best ones.

You don’t need to do anything special class wise to learn film production (that’s what going to college is for!), but if you express interest in theater, film, or directing you may increase your chances of getting into your choice major. You could get involved in your local youth theater group, take on an internship or job at your local television station, or find film or screen writing competitions for high schoolers.

Good luck!

AnimeStudio and AnimeStudioPro are very affordable and output Flash file movie format, or output individual frames to go on to a video editor program.

The same company owns Poser for realistic looking 3D people and animals.

What I really like about the AnimeStudio Pro version is it comes with a bones tool so you can bend and warp a 2D drawing for action or speech. Saves months, if not a year, off of the production time.

Both versions come with a 30-day trial download. The Pro version is available for Linux. Both versions run Win/Mac.

You may try this AVS Video Editor which has many great functions. The features in the official site are below:
1. Direct Transfer to iPod, PSP, Mobiles and Other Portable Players
2. Supports Virtually ALL Video Formats
3. Burn Movie DVDs
4. Capture and Edit Video from External Devices
5. Edit Video and Enhance Your Movies
6. Create Slide Shows
7. Make Perfect Audio for Your Video Editing Tasks
8. Scene Detection
9. Convenient Video Editing Tools and Interface

There is the free download link:
Also, you can use Photoshop which may be difficult for us:

Avidemux is awesome (and free) for cutting and using PLENTY of features to benefit any video project you’re working on.

There are a bunch out there, it all depends on how much you can afford. There is Adobe, Toonboom, anim8or. There are so many. google it and find out what features you want to learn more about..

Good Luck

Hello my frind
u have to learn 3d max and i must tell u it is so hard and u must try alot study hard there are a lot of books and cds for learn 3d max

Do you want 2D or 3D animation?

If you want to learn 3D, then i recommend Blender. It’s entirely free but still has all the features of your top-of-the-range application. You can find it here:
And some good tutorials for it here:

If you want to learn some 2D animation, then i’d recommend flash, just cos it seems to be the standard for 2D animation. If you just want to try it, then download the trial before buying the full version. Find it here:

if you mean CGI animation like the films made by dreamworks or pixar then you can start with bryce, or cinema 4d. howver for simple 2D animations go for adobe flash studio.

Warning, the good packages are pricey!!
i dont think bryce is too bad though

you can use ulead 10
or ulead 7
otherwise download an easy video editor from