I also working in my skill in 3d   at my own phase  using blender 3d  but  I skip with the animation more in modeling low poly  character since rendering an animation take days  still search more for solutions on that area  but they actually come up with an idea of what they called render farm  I do not  know much of the detail  but  its compose of  multiple  computers  using Linux or  PC  not sure with MAC

concerning with blender 3d its free  and it has  supports  and ready to use installed add ons its open  source so bugs fixed updated frequently  just like in maya it has sculpting  the interface  is easy to use