Yeah, Simon is pretty cool, I'm at the forums as well.

I know you mentioned that you're more relaxed in 2D apps so It might pay to look at what the newest installments of  what The Waffle can do.

Dogwaffle appears to be hellbent on 2D animation and there's some awesome demonstrations at Thebest's site that shows, what looks like time-lapse photography, animated clouds rolling over a professionally painted foreground.

But for those those only interested in 3D, the free Waffle 1.2 turns Curvy into a versatile 3D model painting application. And 3D model painting is why I originally downloaded Curvy three months back.