animation

[johngreenwood]

That depends on what you mean by animation. What is exactly you are wanting to do?
Stuff like animated GIFs? Or you want to control "puppets" and save it as a video? Or do you want to go for the "create everything, rig it for animation, and render" kind of animation you get with a 3D software package?

There will probably be some free software around for what you want. If you want to do 3D stuff, Blender is free, open source software. It might be difficult to learn but there are tutorials on the site, and I am sure there will be a very helpful community.