for paid ones.. maybe akeytsu will be in the near future there as a lowcost alternative !? when you would choose Max or Maya then keep in mind one of those tools will be the next to get the EOL death. EOL= end of life like Softimage recently got officially killed besides the fact it was an Industry tool. Blender has of…
Blender is probably your best bet. You can animate in Unity, which is free, but the animation tools are pretty simple. You still need to create the skeleton though, and set up vertex weights, so Blender or another free software. Also you could take a look at Anim8or http://www.anim8or.com/