I'm looking on how to make sprites-which programs, how to get them, how to animate them,etc.
Can someone help?

All I know is that if you aren't an artist you have no chance.

Well THAT helps... :P

And even if you are an artist, you still have very little chance

I asked how to do it, not what my chances are!

Sprites...

Programs: Adobe Photoshop, MS Paint, Adobe Fireworks are the best / most-used three.

How: *sigh*...

*agrees on "how" with Miles* it isn't something you can just tell someone... you have to learn. though, me, miles, and kuro are the spriters that are still "active" today... we cannot just tell you exactly how to make them. all of my sprites are made in MS paint. you can check out some of my sprites (and even miles07's) at metroid fan mission:
http://metroidr.brpxqzme.net/index.php?act...¶m=02&id=68

there is even a topic here I made that goes for my WIP dark suit:
http://forums.metroidheadquarters.com/inde...?showtopic=2615
I sometimes also use paint.net for transparencies and stuff... sorry I cannot give any help, but maybe some of these will help you:
http://www.spriters-resource.com/resources/tut.php

An artist is anyone who makes art.

Any art.

Including the super crappy "expressional lines" abstract art.

And music.

*Disbelief.* I think pretty much everything is a science in a sense, including pixeling. It just seems difficult to explain things sometimes, and there are so many individual concepts in it that you could write a whole book about it...or lots of books, even. And many people have done that.

I once started a fairly general outline of how to make pixel art, and the outline itself (which is far from complete) is more than a page long, typed, single-spaced, in small font.

I did not know how to sprite either when I started. You just simply have to start with practice, learn how to manipulate color pixels to create what you want. I find, the best thing to do for learning is to start small. Try to make very small things that look good, then work your way up. Trying to start on a big image right from the beginning will overwhelm and discourage you from ever wanting to get serious about it.

Maybe even try small 4-color items, like a basic NES sprite, or even a Gameboy style sprite, which uses white (255, 255, 255), light grey (168,168,168), dark grey (84,84,84) and black (0,0,0).

Again, just start "Somewhere" and go from there.


PS. Yes I know Gameboy emulators use 96,96,96 for their dark greys, but I prefer 84,84,84.

I'm an artist!
Start from somewhere and work your way to anywhere.....

I'm not an artist unless you count shooting things as an art form.

you shoot things? with real guns?

Spriting requires practise. Much practise. Such as 2 years for me to just get up to Coor thar in mah siggy. It will take me another 5 years to be as good as say, kuro or DP, with the custom and the niceness and the overall too good for noobs like me to do^^

<_< No not real guns...

then it doesn't count
thats like saying "I watch videos of people drawing, thus, I can draw!"

No its not.

I agree.

so you are saying that fps's DO teach children how to shoot guns and massacre masses?

yep.
they think its ok to kill people.
PS children under 11 shouldn't play FPS's!

Which is why most FPSs are rated T for teens.

And I agree with Kenji. The ability to sprite isn't granted to anyone, but it can be earned through trial&error, hard work, and determination.

*angelic choir sings faintly in the background ♪*
Mastery of spriting, however, is given to only a small percentage of the spriting population... Like A.J. Nitro and Mageker...
*choir crescendos and hold a final note ♫*

Jack Thompson was right!!

Not relating to a different Thompson we know.
He's right too.

Something as simple as MS Paint is good for making sprites. To get sprites, check out The Spriters Resource. For animation I usually use Easy GIF Animator, even if it has no sound. Then there's always Windows Movie Maker, but that suck at animation. Good sprites take a lot of paitence and practice, espically if you want a lot of detail.