I got a chance to personally talk to a Pixar 3d Developer (She helped w/ the animation of incredibles, 2 new movies, toystory2, and a few others) and they use Maya. She also said that most gaming companys use the same program. It specializes in character creation and Bones for objects. I got the chance to get a free copy of it, it's really nice. You should check it out. If you want to do your own for free I recomend Anim8tor, its a nice program, simple, yet effective.