Hello I did TV production in high school about 10 years ago for a year and everything was fine. I didn't pursue video after high school because at the time, the Internet was relatively new and everything was expensive. Now, with everything becoming cheaper in the terms of hardware and fast Internet connections are available - I am thinking about getting into creating and producing videos for clients. For the time being, I'm trying to create a small one or two minute video for social networking and website purposes that explains my business and the service I am trying to sell. I want to overlay some animations on top of a graphic of a map and have various animations to explain my point. A video friend of mine suggested Adobe After Effects. He's unsure of anything else to use. I know you need an application like Sony Vegas to piece together your video and you use Adobe After Effects to create something that you then import into Sony Vegas so I know that you need multiple applications for this overall process. After I get this small video project done, I want to save some money and purchase video editing equipment since I will have cash flow coming in from this business that I am starting. I want to reinvest it into my video production by purchasing a new desktop, some monitors, software and cameras. Does anyone have a good recommendation for desktop hardware? I know people talk about i5 and i7 desktops but I was leaning towards an Intel Xeon system, preferably a quad core system, since it has higher cache sizes (8, 12, and 16mb) compared to "desktop" Intel systems where the highest I've seen is a 8mb cache. I know you need larger caches for intensive things (I come from a system administrator background and I've compiled software on 512k caches then on 12mb caches so I know cache size makes a HUGE difference!) I know you need a decent graphics card for rendering. I am looking at dual 22 inch monitors for editing and the other monitor for output. The software I am leaning on is Sony Vegas Pro. I heard it was good and relatively cheaper than anything Adobe offers. I'm not stuck on a particular brand or company for software - if it works then it works, but I don't see dropping $2000+ on Adobe software for the simple fact it's Adobe software. I would rather drop $1000 on 5 pieces of software, including the most money on the software that I am going to use the most, rather than on software for a suite that I may or may not use. Does anyone have recommendations for cameras? My friend does pretty good video with his sub $200 "flip" camera that shoots 720p. He edits and publishes with Windows Movie Maker. I eventually want to get into publishing 15 - 20 minute online TV shows then move into documentaries or short stories eventually so this is what I'm trying to gear up for. Thank you and I appreciate all the input.