As Forester suggested I would look at Cinema4D. I've used it in the past and personaly found the learning curve much lower then with Maya or Max. I'm not sure about Lightwave, could that be an alternative, perhaps someone knows? Years ago, I've animated intros for games in Cinema4D and found that working very well, but that's quite a while ago. Cinema4D harnasses a lot more power these days and will bring your animations to a different level for sure, not having to worry about all of the problems Vue causes.

Artwork and 3DToons items, create the perfect place for you toon and other figures!

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/bcs/index.php?vendor=23722

Due to the childish TOS changes, I'm not allowed to link to my other products outside of Rendo anymore :(

Food for thought.....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYZw0dfLmLk