Well it looks like the program Zbrush is evolving.  It used to be just a program where you take a character from a separate package and then you use Zbrush to make really good take textures.  It was also a really good scalping program as well.  Now with Zbrush 4, it looks like you can start animating your  characters within the program as well.  I don't know how useful it would be since you can't really place a whole scene in Zbrush, but it looks like the makers of Zbrush, Pixologic, is trying to expand on the success of the program.

More Information at zbrushcentral.com.