"...what the best software would be for me to create a cartoon." If you don't care about canned content ala Poser then you might want to take a look at Animation Master at hash.com. For $250 to $300, depending where you buy it, you'll have a wonderful animation toolset. Rigging, a task I loathe in any poly app I've tried as a hobbyist, is comparatively easy in AM and very powerful. There are quite a few Maya pros who use AM for their personal projects. Its a great tool set for a 'one-man-show'. Probably the biggest downside to AM is that you would be locked in the world of Hash patches, which drives some people to distraction.