#Animation
I have seen a program put out by Disney, a 2D cell animation program,
which was very good. I cant remamber the name, a friend of mine
bought it and was very pleased. I belive it was priced about $80 to
$100.
As far as 3D anim. There are two very good Raytracing programs on
GRAPHDEV here in CI$. These programs are also supported very well in
that forum. He might want to check those out before spending the
$1000 (Strata 3D) to $3500 (3DS). POV and Vivid are the two best.
POV has more utilities and Vivid has a better output. So take your
pick. POV has been packaged with a book called Ray Tracing Creations
$39.95 US.