Thanks! That link is to Part 4, the latest part (of 5, still being worked on.) You can actually see the evolution of my process if you watch all 4 parts (also on Youtube, see below) as I developed my skills and workflow, and the technology improved as well. The earlier parts were animated almost exclusively by hand, while Part 4 is almost exclusively mocapped, which I think really allows for much more realistic and dynamic motion, but even mocap isn't a magic bullet since there is always a lot of cleanup and adjusting to be done, and even within Part 4 I think you can see that I'm more familiar by the end of that part than at the beginning.

In any case, I think the tools are available to an independent animator or small team to do some really good work, and it keeps getting better. Plus, I think the Daz models look as good as many high-end models, and keep getting better, so it may not be long before we see pro-level work being done with off-the-shelf--even "hobby" software--like Poser.

Link to my Youtube channel (there's also a little animation I was just fooling with to try something more fantasy-based):

http://www.youtube.com/user/Auroratrek