Hi. I'm a relatively new GIMP 2.8 user. I am looking for animation tutorials to learn how to make animations. I know how to do a frame by frame drawn animation, but I want to create more complex animations using 3 or more moving items using drawings and 'bits' from other images. When I try I get completely lost on how to use and understand the many layers needed to accomplish this. I think I might be a little too ambitious with my limited knowledge.

If you go to tutorials > text tutorials you will find lots of tutorials for animations. ccbarr does some very good ones and easy to follow. Here is a couple of halloween ones but he has done several more if you browse through.

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You say that you are new to gimp 2.8.2, but are you entirely new to gimp?

My Gap a Ghost for Halloween tutorial is for beginner GAP users and users with moderate gimp skills.

It shows you a little how GAP forms layers and gives you kind of a skinny dip into GAP.

I am an entirely new GIMP user.

I think you might be better off learning some basic skills in GIMP first before jumping into animations. Check out our basic tutorials to become more proficient in GIMP. Just keep working with it. You'll get there. We all were new to GIMP at one time or another.

Essential GIMP Tutorials

One small tip is that each layer is a frame.