What is the best computer program for making animated cartoons or southpark or jibjab styled shows and chips?

I want to know how to make short animated shows and clips and want to know what the best and easiest computer program is and how to use it.

What is the best computer program for making animated cartoons or southpark or jibjab styled shows and chips?
maya? for south park/ jib jab style? are you kidding? they're completely different forms of animation.





You want to be using something like Toon Boom (great for south park style lip and mouth syncing) or After Effects for sure. Flash is good too, but doesn't deal with bitmap images well (photos.)


I would recommend After Effects. It's prety easy to use, and give you a nice clean, jerky animation style.
Reply:Flash is the easiest, but is more limited. Alias Wavefront Maya is best for rigging the characters, but has a steep learning curve. Adobe After Effects is worth looking into- it's a versatile middle ground. It helps to know Photoshop or Illustrator to make the images you want to animate. Start with photoshop if you don't know it yet, then try the others.
Reply:It depends on your skills, maya is used by dreamworks in making shrek. However, if your skills are limited flash is a great program.
Reply:try animation master...it's powerful and it's easy to learn... just follow directions...for the basics

garden ridge