Hey, I couldn't help overseeing you asking about Photoshop/GIMP (I was checking to see if a mod was online). What I recommend for those who can't afford Photoshop is Paint.NET. It's a little more useful for spriting than GIMP in my opinion and even though I have Photoshop (student rates ftw!) a lot of times I use it over Photoshop since it's slightly less complicated and still does everything I need.