Hi, i wanna share you the program I use to make animations and to check sprites, is really simple to use and weights 1.20 megabytes. Although it didnt fit for all the process of pixeling, it has some bugs....but again, for create a gif, is pretty straight forward
http://www.aseprite.org/The other program I use is GraphicsGale, something odd but also very powerfull, but is not free like Aseprite
http://www.humanbalance.net/gale/I would like to help you but im really new in this and im only gonna entanggled myself in an answer that probably dont help you
Keep working
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