This should be moved to the software and hardware section. But I recommend having a look at the free software list on bricksinmotion.com (I'm on it right now!!!!!) because they have about every free software program on there.

Quigibo's MonkeyJam Tips and Tricks:

• Always have frame blending turned on.  Click that picture of the square in the upper left and it should turn into a bunch of little squares on top of each other.  This drastically reduces graininess and improves quality.

• While animating, click the frame scroll bar on the bottom.  You can use the wheel on the mouse to go back and forth between the last frames and the new one to see how the animation looks.  You can also use this to preview-as-you-go

• If the above method isn't working, you have to exit the capture window and open it again.  This is a bug in the program.  If this is persistent, then capture a junk frame BEFORE you start the animation and then close and reopen the window so that it doesn't interfere with your animating.

• The preview usually IS slower than the actual frame rate.  Rendering it will fix this problem

• If you're using a codec for rendering, then after you click render, you must wait until it finishes compressing before you exit the window.  Otherwise, it could cut off the last few seconds of animation

Hope this is helpful
MonkeyJam is my favorite out of even the professional animation software, even if it is a little buggy.

As for the other software, you'll have to do your own research on that.  There aren't many good free ones in my opinion so you may also want to consider investing in some real editing software if you're planning on making more films in the future.