I think they are animated GIFs, so as to save space. There are some shareware/demo versions of GIF editors out there that you can use to make animated GIFs, but you have to have some way to get or make all the separate images to build the file.
Does this forum's software support animated avatars? :-?
Yes - as long as it falls into the specified range of "picture types", it'll work. My web-service is down temporarily (sorry, Timelord and Hemlock Mike) but will be back up hopefully later today....any animated gif works perfectly !
Now - me, personally being of questionable (please read that as ZERO) artistic skill found those gif animators VERY difficult to work ! I have seen some cool little shareware programs that do most of the work for you though - and it has been a looooong time since I have tried my hand at them.
*****EDIT****** Okay - my web is back up and running now...sorry for the issues, guys !