Cool I thought I was the Only oe in the world Who used Wings.
I will say that there is nothing as easy as wings for animation, but I can tell you two prgrams that can do it for free.
Blender
Anima8or
I am ok with the former, but I HATE the latter. It to me is sooo unintuitive However Thousands of user use it so Hey! Anima8or is a low poly animator, but it is not very good for modeling, so I would sugges that you import your models and rig them in anim8or.
As for blender it is hard, but after a while you'll get the hang of it. It is good for modeling and animation.
One last one would be milkshape 3d. It however costs something like $25 However Milkshape is capable of handeling almost any format in the world, so it has that going for it.
No matter what you chose it is going to be difficult to learn, so hit the tutorials and help manuals frequently.
I don't why I exist, so I have no reason not take your money and run.