I am very new the 3d graphics world, I was attracted to the Cryengine by Crysis advertisements etc...

Right now I am only interested in making animations (not games) and CryEngine seems to have a large amount of options bundled together, but now i am starting to notice a multitude of other programs like Carrara, blender, Maya etc. If I am only looking to make the best looking animation, what program(s) (with a reasonable learning curve) would you recommend?

Any help or advice is very much appreciated!