Best Laptop Choice for Computer Animation

Hi there!

So... next semester I am starting art university, and I intend on majoring in Computer Animation. For that, I will need a new laptop - so I thought I'd do some research on what I should go for.

Here are the answers to the suggested questions.

1. What is your budget?
About 1500 dollars.

2. What is the size of the notebook that you are considering?
15 inch would be best.

3. What screen resolution do you want?
About 1280x800? Something like that...

4. Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop?
Portable.

5. How much battery life do you need?
4 hs +

6. Do you want to play games with your laptop? If so then please list the games that you want to with the settings that you want for these games. (Low,Medium or High)?
That wouldn't be a priority. I'd only install games like The Sims or Portal IF the machine could handle it along with everything else well. That being said, the settings for the games would also depend on how well the laptop could handle it.

7. What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo/Video editing, Etc.)
2D and 3D animation, photo editing, and a lot of graphics work in general.

8. How much storage (Hard Drive capacity) do you need?
500 GB min

9. If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post their links.
-

10. How long do you want to keep your laptop?
As long as I can. So, for as long as it manages to handle my needs. I guess the minimum timeframe, however, would be 4 years.

11. What kind of Optical drive do you need? DVD ROM/Writer,Bluray ROM/Writer,Etc ?
DVD ROM/Writer is fine.

12. Please tell us about the brands that you prefer to buy from them and the brands that you don't like and explain the reasons.
My only true preference regarding this is... I would rather avoid buying a Mac. I believe I can buy an incredibly kick-ass PC for the same price (or less) than a Mac, so I'd rather go for that.

13. What country do you live in?
Brazil, but am soon moving to the United States.

14. Please tell us any additional information if needed.
I plan on using a graphics tablet. I am constantly on Skype, so smooth running of that would also be appreciated.

I guess that's all there really is to it. If there's anything else you need to know, let me know!