Attached Link: http://annsartgallery.com

If I can chirp in here, I've not made an animation in poser yet, but have in Bryce. I have Maya PLE. If I understand right, you want your son to get a feel for animation software and processes before he goes to school and gets in the class that will teach him all of the above things. That said, I'm not sure Poser would be a disservice. I would not recommend Maya PLE to dive into animation for a pre school animation project. Maya has a steep learning curve and that's what the instructor is for. I would recommend Maya PLE to get familiar with what he is about to do. You are limited on time, so my feeling is that Poser will help him learn what key frames are about and he can quickly creat animations using the walk designer built in with poser then pick it apart. Poser is affordable for this and the best bang for the buck on people animation. I also agree with the comments above about observation and flip books. No matter how much of a computer wiz a person is, they have to be an artist to do it right. Many of the folks here have graphite, bronze, oil, acrylic, etc as well as CG art. I can watch my sister do anatomically correct horses, and my brother make photo perfect oils (right down to camera distortions..lol) but when I see both combined into a full art form, my jaw drops and that's the key to success... capturing the audience.