The latest stable release is of GIMP is 2.2.6 and you can get it here.
Points to note:
GIF stands for Graphics Interchange Format.
It is limited to 256 colours only. Hence, it isn't a good idea to use this format if you are working with high-resolution photos/images and want to keep them at that level. It works better with illustrations.
First, using GIMP, make all the layers of your image. Simply put, one layer is just one frame of the animation.
If you're not sure how to go about working with layers check out the GIMP documentation on the GIMP homepage.
Let's assume that there are 4 layers:
1) Background,
2) Layer #1 - what you want to appear in frame #1,
3) Layer #2 - what you want to appear in frame #2 and
4) Layer #3 - what you want to appear in frame #3 (which is your final frame)
They don't necessarily have to be in order. Unless you're like Adrian Monk or something.
You should actually see all your layers together in a horrendous looking mess unless you turn on hiding.
So to make life easier for yourself, go to the 8th menu in the image window called "Dialogs" > click on "Layers" > a dialog box with a listing of all the layers will pop up.
Click on the eye icons to toggle hiding/showing of each layer.
If you want to rename layers, right-click on the layer and select "Edit Layer Attributes".
Go to the last menu in the image window, "Video". Select "VCR Navigator". This is where you edit the time of each frame and which layers appear in which frames.
When you're done, save the file (in .gif format......)
That's it!
Note: ImageReady is definitely less complicated to make animations with, but... GIMP is free!
If you encounter problems, you might want to take a look at these helpful pages.
http://www.gimp.org/tutorials/Simple_Animations/
http://www.gimp.org/tutorials/Using_GAP/
Hope that helps
