I'm in the One week contest currently running and am making a 2D side-scroller. I've never made sprites before and my only image program is MSPaint, which combined with my artistic crapness means it takes me 30min to make a terrible sprite! Are there free apps that make building up a sprite animation set easier than drawing every frame - using a vector-based system so you can move the limbs and take a 'screenshot' for each sprite for instance? I'm wanting to get a decent set for the main character, and then some bog-standard platforms, powerups and little robotic enemy dudes. Thanks.

Look at the sticky...

I'm not sure the sticky helps in this case; I think d000hg isn't interested in downloading sprites, but making his own using a more "user-friendly" tool than Paint.

I'm a beginner artist too; MSPaint isn't actually that bad for pixel art, but there are better tools out there. For pixel art GraphicsGale seems okay for sprites, although I still find it a bit annoying.

For general art work, there's always the GIMP. The interface is a bit cumbersome (in my opinion), but it's free! Plus for beginners like me who also like cartoony styled artwork Inkscape is really good; I'd recommend having a look at it. I'll probably be using both of these tomorrow to make art for my "One Week One Button" entry.

As for answering your exact question, you could use a 3D modelling tool to do what you ask. I haven't had a look at them myself, but I'm pretty sure some of them use a skeletal based system. You can also "move" limbs around in Inkscape pretty easily, although you'll need to do some retouching to make sure they don't look too funky.

However, if it's just for this entry, you can make "bad art" quite touching artistically if you pull it off well! At least I hope so, for my game's sake.

Yeah I'm looking to make new sprites. InkScape looks useful - can I apply textures to my vector objects? Then I just have to pull the vertices to get new animation frames... or is it limited to solid colour fill effects?

How's your entry coming by the way?

I can't remember off the top of my head if you can add textures or not. I'm fairly sure you can add textured effects (like making something look like it's made of paper), but I'm not sure about stretching textures within the direction of the vectors. Since I aim for cartoon effects solid colours are okay.

I asked a similar question a while back on this forum about how to be a better artist (here's a link), if you want to check the replies I got there. There's also a piece of sample art that I did in Inkscape, if I remember correctly.

As for my entry, I've been busy with work right up until an hour ago. Now I've got a whole day free in lieu from missing the weekend to start on my game (well, after I have dinner and catch up on some badly needed sleep!)

Good luck with it, and thanks for your advice - I'll play with InkScape although I may have convinced somebody else to do some art too (always the best solution in my view).