Depends on what you want to do, there are alot of programs and alot of crossover programs to it also.
Flash is great for the web and to make small to semilarge animations. Adobe has a similiar program..
Fireworks, ImageReady and such are mainly for Gif animations, a picture..
Macromedia Director is the largest toatl multimedia package for web and CD multimedia, includiong animations and such, very advanced with its own scripting lanuage.
Adobe has Two programs for animation for film effects too. Premiere is mainly for editing film and movie clips together with some basic effects. And After Effects is for more advanced mvie special effects and animations, for the web to movie productions!
To make animations though, Flash is a great program to learn, also have a check at Fireworks/Imageready for gif files. For 3D, your wallet has to decide man... Expansive stuff!
The 3D show is even larger, most 3D programs have some animation builed in to make either small images, or scenes to total movies..
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Yawning lazywolf dreaming about nice little fairies...zzzzz
[This message has been edited by WOLFGIR (edited 06-15-2001).]