...animation requires an awful lot of patience. It's not easy. It's very time consuming. Go to the Maya forums to see what the people who do it for a living have to say. Poser, at a hundred fifty bucks or so is a spectacular bargain to be able to get your feet wet in animation with photorealistic figures. If you know of an app that does it better for less money let me know and I'll buy their stock. I don't believe there are any answers that will make you happy.