lol
the program does most of the work, really. I just had to throw a sphere and 6 boxes and set the materials.
I had much better animations and images from 3ds max, including a "perpetual motion machine" that was actually a project in school.
Personally I prefer working with my Flash animations; cannot remember the site I uploaded them too though.
Also, the last time I used illustrator computers only have black and white! undoubtedly, they've changed it. I might even be thinking of a different program.
Also, 3d-animation is far less abstract in a sense.