In the current climate what better way to save money to make money than to employ open source free software as your creative tools.

Your alternative are as follows

For web design > NVU, a simple straightforward WYSIWYG editor for you web needs.

For animation > Synfig, 2D time-line animation creation tool.

For vector graphics creation > Inkscape, a vector graphics application similar to Illustrator and CorelDraw.

For page layout > Scribus, open source professional page layout design application.

For multimedia design > Libavg, create media rich interactive presentations akin to Director.

For video editing > Avidmux, video editor designed for simple cutting, filtering and encoding supporting many file types.

For adding video effects > Jahshaka, edit and add visual effects like After Effects.