Herp derp, I wanted to make an animated avatar for the forum but it was not meant to be. Its sort of bad, sadly. The walk-cycle is insanely lazy as well, bahhhhh
Well you can have animated avatars, they just wont show unless someone clicks on it. (suika has a few animated avatars actually.)
There's no harm in trying to learn! I've been messing around with trying to make sprites the past 2 days, and I think my progress is coming along nicely. I recolored the poptop sprite: and I gave her a friend he's quite a bit taller than her... [about the recolor -to be fair, I actually made it 'from scratch' but I counted the spaces in between everything so I might as well have traced.] Here's her friend ready to attack: Yes, his scarf is his 'claw' thing. I could work on it more to raise the scarf to make it actually look aggressive. My idea with the blush is that he's ashamed to be caught trying to chew you up.
I would say you could use either Paint.net or GraphicsGale. Both free, but I suppose GraphicsGale would be the 'better' one. It's the one I use more often, it's pretty nice.
Really, you can do pixelart with -anything.- I pixel in microsoft paint, it doesn't really do much if you have fancy programs. Though it helps, the result is not going to look much different.
Tried my hand at spriteing. I was going for this: <(can't make any smaller ) Criticism/complements are welcome! Note I've never sprited before.
I'm not a really great spriter myself, but I do like it I would say avoid using pure black, even for outlines. You can't really tell where the hair ends and where the foot/body begins. It's a bit messy. Using different shades will help, although it's a bit tough getting different shades of black. Also, using different shades make sprites look more full and less flat. [Edit - Also, more isn't always better in pixel art. A few colors that blend well together can make a picture look more real and flow better. Although, someone more experienced can explain this better.] Of course, I'm far from being a master at pixel art, so take everything I say with a grain of salt. Don't want to embarrass myself, but just trying to help.
Here's my first non pixel art pop top... feedback plz.... HIs tongue got stuck on a lamppost in the winter... I had to make this ^-^
Poptop Trouble #3 Dr. Bunhead (opening the door): "–...And now you have to see our huge collection of alien lifeforms..."