Traditional tools abound. It's amazing how many traditional graphics tools are jammed into these programs. As you create and edit images and text treatments, you're limited only by your imagination. Most of the programs also help you create JavaScript rollover buttons. That can be a big help.
Animation can be tough.
All the programs we tested claim to create animations, but we found that only Adobe Photoshop's ImageReady and Macromedia Fireworks offer truly usable animation interfaces. Of course, you should probably ask yourself if bandwidth-hogging animations are really necessary in the first place. Maybe they shouldn't be on your site at all. Only one of the six programs we looked at earned a five-star scorecard rating and our Editors' Choice designation, and it wasn't Photoshop. To see which one we feel is best, and to learn much more about all six, be sure to read our full evaluation.