I have to do a bunch of little instructional animations for a project I call "The Two-Minute Roofing School".

Have a look at http://www.bigcity.ca/Lap/Lap.html Take a look at the level of detail that's required.

As you'll see, I have a great deal of difficulty animating roofing materials unrolling and the stuff being folded. Being able to Zoom and Pull Back efficiently would be nice too.

I've looked at Swift 3D for a long time (been waiting on the OS X version).

I think a 3D program will help out this process. Currently I'm faking the perspective in FreeHand.