H.264 codec

Alright, I guess I've resisted long enough, but since this seems to be growing in popularity I see that I may not be able to watch some new releases without it.
 
So, what is a good, free H.264 codec?

Also, google provides little help other than telling me how wonderful this codec must be.

Wikipedia points to this: http://developers.videolan.org/x264.html

Anyway, I'd like to hijack this thread with my own question: There are basically two types of video available on the web, lifelike and animation. Most of the codecs seem to be optimized for the former; why are there no special animation codecs?