Here’s some free stuff for you:
Check out Blender, an open source free 3D creation program. You can download it right here then either read the documentation or watch some video tutorials.
Also check out Project Orange a short movie made using Blender distributed under the Creative Commons license. You can purchase the DVD in advance to sponsor the project.
I also found some free After Effects plugins from Pete Warden, Philipp Spoeth and aeFlame by Drew Davidson. This webpage here has a long list of cheap or free plugins. I looked around at Pluginz.com and found more free plugins like FieldFixer and HSL Selection from Frischluft and Reveal from Profound Effects.
Use IndieBudgetBuddy 1.6 if you can‘t get your hands on the expensive software. It will help you estimate budgets for 35mm Film to High and Standard-Definition Video Productions. Done by Richard Ferrando.
Hope that helps.