help -- point me in the right direction

I'm an old programmer who used to create interactive corporate applications with 'dumb terminals'. Since then I've learned Visual Basic. Now I'm writing for fun and I'd like to add animation to my application. Not a little picture that bounces but a character that would move around the screen. What should I be studying? What software would I need? Lots of the acronyms still mean nothing to me.

Google 'sprite sheet'
The only software you need is your favorite image editor.

Which version of VB are you using?
.Net and VB6 are really quite different.

Thanks. I'm using VB6. I'm really not interested in putting this on the net. Yeah, that's what I say now, right?
I'll try the google.

I would argue your best bet would be to use BitBlt api, check the tutorial out that's here. When people are learning they often use controls to represent their sprites, this is okay as long as you don't intend to have very much going on (they are slow and cause flicker). Using a control is slightly easier to code.