what type of animation are you interested in? There are a number of options and it would help to know what your thinking.

@Naked_Homer i was hoping for something that looked like it was hand drawn? any simple 2D animation really

For hand drawn animation, you’re going to want one tool above all else: The Peg bar. It’ll keep your sheets of animation lined up so you don’t have any weird jitters when you’re shooting your animation. Just make sure you either order the right paper pre-punched, or you may be able to find the puncher cheap.

You’ll want something that will illuminate the paper so you can compare your last frame to your current one. This Page has a lot of useful information on different equipment, but before you spend the money on light table, you can actually use almost anything flat, translucent with a even light under it. My first light box was a tupperware container lined with tin foil that had a small desk lamp inside and a peg bar taped to the top.

None-photo-blue pencils are nice for getting the rough idea of what poses you want before you full on draw the character, and they won’t show up when you shoot the animation.

The most expensive part would be the actual filming of the animation. There are specialty camera set ups for this, but you can use almost any webcam if you can point it at a well lit surface that you can tape the pegbar to.

As for programs, that can be the expensive part. I’m partial to DigiCel Flipbook, but there may be alternatives out there. Anything that can take pictures and put them together in a sequence can work.

Scanning frames is and option if you can register them properly. It takes longer than regular shooting but it does dramatically cut down on the equipment and cost. Of course you don’t get the benefit of a lunchbox to pencil test with. I wouldn’t want to do hand drawn without a lunchbox set up.

I’m not very familiar with that various 2d animation software out there but there seem to be a lot of options. I’ve heard good things about toonboom but it’s crazy expensive. Do go to one of the online stores that sells software with an academic discount if you’re looking at something pricey and are enrolled in a school currently.

If you do want to do hand drawn animation directly in the the computer (as plenty of software will allow) you will need a wacom tablet or preferably a cintiq. Drawing on a tablet doesn’t feel like drawing on paper so if maintaining the quality on-paper-drawing is important to you you might want to get a very good one with good pressure sensitivity.

What @RocketSquid and @fundevogel have said pretty well sums it up. I have just had to replace my tablet because they quit supporting Mac when Snow leopard came out. I got one of “these”:http://www.amazon.com/Wacom-Bamboo-Touch-Small-Tablet/dp/B002OOWC3S/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1260752755&sr=8–1 just for sketching purposes.