Animation has been my specialty for close to a decade now.
I'll be using a combination of 3D and 2D programs to create the animations.
Likely make-human, blender/maya, and after effects.
I estimate the time needed to produce the initial animation is going to be about 2-3 times longer than the rest as the characters need to be created, and the environments set up, as well as the after effects file, which afterwards can be customized to any texts etc.
In all, I'd expect the initial setup to be 6-8 hours.
I'm looking forward to you reply, and hope to get going on this asap.
Best Regards,
Jacob Dodd