Animated Sales Video. Where do you get them from?

Excellent topic discussion ....
I and a friend are currently in the process of creating an animated video for our unique and never before seen video services (which includes animated videos....& ebook covers, book covers, banners, cd covers, headers) we plan to offer on Warriorforum...
We are doing everything ourselves, no templates involved, the plan so far...design characters, write script, create storyboard, create all 'actors' & elements involved (this is where we are).
The plan next...animate, render, upload. To do this we are using -
Illustrator
After Effects
Photoshop Extended
Final Cut
sound track pro
Pencil & Paper

Studio13 is right, this is what I love (I don't love voice over, which will be the part we are outsourcing), and I hope to be making a living doing it. By doing our own video first we can work out how long it would to take to make one, the problems and basically streamline the process. So far it has taken longer than excepted and was originally thinking about a price of $400 but so far i am thinking about $1000-2000 (maybe for 1 min or 1 video...I know someone that charges $10000 for something I can do myself with my eyes closed) special warriorforum price.
The reason is the amount of time & effort going into making this video (sorry) but after creating my own video, I would never do one for a low price.

As Bill said you can achieve the same effect in 3d software (I would use Maya...and would never go near open source software) but this would cost a lot more because you would have to first model 3d objects and the environment (would take a few months depending on the complexity of the scene...don't forget to model each facial expression), then rig each object (give them a 'skeleton' and attach the 'skin' to it so it would move), texture it (very complex to achieve the look of a 2d animation), animate, light your scene, render (you have to render in parts because your little desktop would prob run out of memory if you do it altogether), composite it back together, edit, sound etc....and this only me skimming through 3d animation. Each area (modelling, lighting, rigging etc...) is a specialise area in its self.
Yes I have done all the above as I have created so far two animated 3d videos (with friends) and it took about 6 months for just over 2 minutes

My rant over now...I am hoping to have the video finished in the next month and the service open for business, we are currently helping a director friend do visual effects & color grading for 2 short films he is making so we have to fit the video around this, hence the 1-2 months to finish the video.


Almost forgot...my director friend and I were discussing this the other day, he told me that its time to learn Maya, I pointed out that we know maya and would take care of what he needs and to stick to what he does best which is Direct! I put it to him in language he would understand - I can learn ANY scriptwriting software in weeks, but it doesnt mean I know how to write a script.

If you have any questions about 3d animation or 2d animation, after effects, Maya etc just ask and I will try and help. Sorry for the long post but its hard to stop when I start talking about animation

Thanks