I am new at Android game development. I want to know how can i create and Animate the game characters i have in mind. Is there a tool out there that can help me get started with the drawing or i have to draw frame-by-frame.
I am targeting simple 2D games.
What you'll need is a sprite sheet. A series of images on the same bitmap laid out in a grid. For example you would have 8 different sprites of the same character, 1 standing still., 1 left foot forward, 1 right foot forward and jumping and again facing the opposite direction.
When you draw the sprite set the coordinates to be drawn and on button presses change the variables controlling the coordinates.
A good tutorial is here http://warriormill.com/2009/10/adroid-game-development-part-1-gameloop-sprites/
and a sprite sheet maker can be found here http://www.codeandweb.com/sprite-sheet-maker
Hope this helps!