Who needs help with animated avatars?  

Yes, I was aware that I may end up with either no responses or enough to keep me busy for weeks. Nevertheless, a lot of members have raised the topic and if there are people who need the advice or help then I feel that I should offer it.
Many avatars appear with a black background if displayed static, which is a great pity when people go to the trouble of finding a good image.

Yes, I imagine that many members have tried reducing the size with Adobe Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro, which will only open and edit the first frame. I do not know if any free versions of animation software exist, which is why I made the offer to resize images for those who require it.

Hello rainbow, your's was just one of many discussions that I came across aking for help on this subject, so it seemed important to offer help to those who may need it. I find the social side of Mylot more valuable than the earnings.
As for the Easter Bunny, I am still a child at heart so I could not resist it.

I like your man writing but I like your caveman best, lol.

I must confess that I like the caveman, but I cannot resist the variety of changing now and then.
I did consider a Purple Monster, The TARDIS or my Zodiac sign.

The software that I use is available from: http://www.ulead.com/ga/runme.htm but will cost you around $50. There are a lot of freeware products advertised, so you could search via Google for "animated gif+software", but I am not sure how effective these products will be.
As for your images, it is my pleasure to help and you can download the resized images from:
http://www.barrychadwick....
http://www.barrychadwick....

Thank you so much! You, my friend, are one of the many people I am grateful for today!

I have googled it and it brought a free download up but I really don't know if it is what you have got

The one that I use is Ulead Gif Animator, which costs around £30 to £35 to buy. You can download a trial version from: http://www.download.com/U... although I am not sure whether the trial version has any restrictions or limitations.

Thank you I will try it I really appreciate this

Thank you lordwarwizard, I appreciate your kind words.

Your's is one of the best avatars that I have seen at Mylot, so it would have been a great pity not to see it animated.

I hate to disappoint you my friend, but what I am referring to is converting an animated gif into a smaller file so that it will appear animated in the discussions.
If you are looking for advice about customising the profile page, then I suggest that you try:
http://www.mylot.com/w/discussions/945034.aspx

I hope that the software works for you, because as I mentioned to gabs in an earlier response I do not know whether the trial version has limitations.

I have not used Corel Photo Paint, but apparently the option to edit an animated gif does exist.
I found a few references to animated gifs associated to Corel Photo Paint, but there do not seem to be any sites that offer a tutorial or even outline information on how to do this. I suspect that this may be a new feature and only available in the latest version.
An animated gif is simply a series of images played in rotation, just like the frames of a video, so most photo editing software will not work because they will only open the first image. You could try opening an animated gif and then click on File and select "save as" to see if it offers you an animated option.
If your software proves to be unsuitable, then I would gladly resize an image for you.