Metasequoia modeler tutorials and Keynote translated plugins

[Verdite]

For mesh warping, I think Blender is a good choice. The only trouble is learning how to use it, as most of its features are hidden within keyboard shortcuts.

Blender uses weight paint and armatures, and is free. The best thing is that the Blender community is huge now, and you can even buy some great tutorial books on character modeling etc in Blender.