I am equally proficient in XSI Blender and Maya when it comes to Modeling and Animation. And I have used Blender for I’d say about 8 years starting with version 2.49. I still use Blender every day for various tasks. But from experience as a Maya user which is my current tool, I would not consider it at the top for Modeling. Though it is very capable. But for animation hands down, beats them all. There are also rigging tools for Maya from Epic that are very nice looking. But just in general for rigging and painting weights and all of that stuff, Maya outclasses Blender by a long shot. And I am saying this as someone who can use them both with equal proficiency. I am not bias just because one is more familiar. HIK as you mentioned is far more robust a tool than anything you will find in Blender especially if you are going to be working with Mocap data. MotionBuilder is my preferred tool there. But a lot of the same functionality is in Maya with this system. So if animation and rigging is your main concern, it is a very complex and taxing work. Don’t sell yourself short. :).