Digital animation has become an extension of my creative life. Making things with my hands has always been a part of my life and how I soothe myself. For a long time I was drawing illustrations of the Calabi-Yau manifold, An 18+ dimensional object. The process of learning to animate these shapes took me more than 5 years, And there are several animation platforms to learn. I think of these programs like photoshop on steroids. Not to mention paying 4000$ for a digital animation program that promises no return on investment is daunting. The level of satisfaction from actually articulating my ideas in this digital medium is unexplainable. Check out blender for maximum free and open source time wasting and digital imagination space.