I'm interested in hearing what software you guys are using for graphics and animation and how the workflow works.

Right now I'm trying Fireworks for vector drawing and then to animate I was trying Flash, but the exported .png sequence is bitmap, not vector, so it's a pain to tweak later in Fireworks. I'm sure there has to be an easier way and since I have no experience in this I figured I'd ask the experts.

I'm mainly interested in vector graphics, due to the ease of resizing for retina display and iPad, but if you're more of a bitmap guy, post what you use anyway without fear.

I use Photoshop and Illustrator for most of my work. Many times I will still draw things the old fashioned way, scan the art in, then proceed to trace in Illustrator. You can draw right inside of Flash, and skip Fireworks altogether. Also look into Illustrator, which can export art for use in Flash for animation.

Also consider breaking your characters into parts, for example, upper arm, lower arm, etc., and then use layers to build your animations. Just reduce the opacity of your layers so you can see the character parts on previous layers.

I hope some of these tips help:)

Dwayne