Basic tutorials for The Gimp have been written by Jens Lautenbacher.
The Gimp, an open source image editing and animation programme, has a very different interface from mainstream commercial programmes. It takes a lot of getting used to. For non-commercial (unfunded) projects such as this one, The Gimp provides the essential tools for free.
To even begin to explore its animation capabilities requires starting with the basics. Animation frames are constructed in layers. This image was made by applying a gaussian blur to a text layer and merging it down into two coloured layers.