Hey,
Welcome to the world of flash, i have been working with flash for about 4 years now. I find that the most stunning movies are made directly in flash, however they are time consuming. Here is a list of some popular softwares.
Swish (lots of text effects & pre built effects like fade, rotate, e.t.c)
Swift 3d (Great for stunning and small sized 3d animating)
Kool Moves for Flash (Another software with prebuilt animation)
Hope this helps
Edit:- Check
www.flashkit.com for a lot of tutorials e.t.c ask me if you need any help