I want to get into animation… how?

Published May 24, 2011 | By Bman

Question by matt: I want to get into animation… how?
I’m not really sure if this is the right place to ask this question.. but I was very curious about this.

alright.. let me start with a background about myself.
I’m Matt. I’m a junior in highschool. i’m in introduction to art, help make movies with friends, was in computer class last year, and love videogames.

I would really love to get into creating 3d models on the computer of various things. i would one day like to be an animator for movies or making videogame animations etc.

The problem is, i really dont know how i would get into this field. I would imagine that i have to take art in high school as i am taking.. but i dont know what colleges that would be good for this or some software that i can practice on.

I currently have a mac g4 laptop or something like that.. =)
if anyone has software for a mac that is free i would like to try it out.
Also.. if you could recommend me to some schools (maybe add in some aquired skills) that would help =)