You have also Blender for 0 $ or € but is that easy?
That is another story :)
For some people yes, for other people no :

Yes,

Blender is good for animation, here http://www.blendercookie.com/ you can find a lot of tutorials about animation,

here some good for rendering: http://www.blenderguru.com/

a good architecture site: http://www.blender3darchitect.com/

for beginners: http://www.gryllus.net/Blender/3D.html

and here a good humen for Blender: http://www.makehuman.org/

Rudl

Thanks for all suggestions...
I will explore which the right choice for my needs...

Frankly, DAZStudio is best for what you want IMO.

Most of DAZ's wares are designed to be inexpensive and easy to use and is oriented towards a "clipart" style of use.

If you peruse their models, model accessories and other add-ons (city blocks, HDRs, vehicles etc.,) you'll see this is how they're setup.

DAZStudio has some serious power when it comes to Puppeteer and especially Animate+ for animating their characters easily.

Don't try to use DS as a >modeling application<, bringing in models, staging your scenes and animating your props and characters is what it's best at.

-Will