Monkey Jam - Stop Motion Animation - Free

Check out MonkeyJam, freeware for animation. It is a PC only application.

MonkeyJam is a digital penciltest program. It is designed to let you capture images from a webcam, camcorder, or scanner and assemble them as separate frames of an animation. You can also import images and sound files already on your computer. Although it is designed for pencil and paper, MonkeyJam can also be used for StopMotion animation and has several features just for that. Movies created in MonkeyJam can be exported as AVI files.

GoAnimate.com Online Animation Software - Free

GoAnimate.com may provide students with an easy way to create animations using online software with ready to use templates. You can use their sound library and type in dialog bubbles, or upload recorded dialog for use in the animations. You just need to set up a free account to access the web-software. Check out their How Does It Work page for a quick summary, or watch the CNN video below.

Texture Archive - Free

You can find a number of free textures available at TextureArchive.com

Maya Animation Software - Free

For students interested in learning top-end animation software Autodesk's Maya Personal Learning Edition is for you.

Maya Personal Learning Edition (PLE) is a special version of Autodesk® Maya® software, which provides free access to Maya for non-commercial use. It gives 3D graphics and animation students, industry professionals, and those interested in breaking into the world of computer graphics an opportunity to explore most aspects of the award-winning Autodesk® Maya® Complete software in a non-commercial capacity. The Maya Personal Learning Edition software is available for 32-bit Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional and Apple® Mac OS® X (for Macintosh Power PC or Intel-based Macintosh computers) operating systems. Autodesk Maya PLE is based on Autodesk Maya 8.5.

Note that the software is for personal use only:

The Autodesk Maya PLE restricts users to non-commercial applications through the display of a watermark on images as well as through the use of a special non-commercial file format. If you are a business, school, academic institution, training center or any similar type establishment you should not use the Software or Materials, or any Personal Use Files in, or as part of, any business activity or educational or training program.