JGoldman, you are such a turkey. You talk about trying to get in touch, apparently for quite awhile with the creator of "Annoying Orange" and finding out how he did it. I spent five minutes online and found half a dozen tutorials on how to do it yourself, one guy who talks about how to find a free download of AfterEffects (don't know how legal it is, I didn't follow it out, but it is there), and about a 9 minute video intgerview with the guy who makes it, WHO STARTED OUT DOING SHORT VIRAL VIDEOS WITH A FLIPCAM, WHICH WERE FREE, JUST LIKE WE TOLD YOU TO DO, IDIOT. You presumably know about Google. Use it. Use youTube--you can find how-tos on damn near everything you're interested in.
You've heard about portfolios, I assume? Probably all your animation idols had portfolios of stuff they'd done, cartoons, comic strips they'd drawn, stuff they'd done in their free time, to show when they went in for a job. Because they were driven to draw, to get their stuff out there. You've had ten years--you should have a HUGE portfolio by now. Do you? Or do you just talk?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ykEt3Epnwg