Being an artist (photographer) myself, I know that you need something that gets the job done. I personally recommend an all-in-one, as they are stylish, yet very powerful. I found this one that looks like a perfect fit. It is within your budget, and it has great features. 8GB of memory is sure to handle graphics-intensive applications such as Flash, Photoshop, Anime Studio, Poser, 3DS Max, Maya, and many others. 1TB of storage will help you store all of your files. And most importantly (for an animator), this PC has a discrete graphics card with 1GB o memory, which is basically fine for moderate editing, exporting, and so on.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883220264
I hope you found this helpful!