I recommend that you pass on getting Animation Master. It seems like Hash and Co. treat it it's in constant beta form, and for a lot of people, it's not very stable. Their version of patch modeling (the only kind there is in that program) is kind of a drag. Maybe you can try out the Movie3D demo and some of the turorials that are in the HTML manual? I think that once you understand how their SDS (subdivision surface) modeling works, you'll be pretty thrilled while imagining all the things you could quickly make with it.