1) What (wacom) tablet do you use? Or any tablet? I am going for a bamboo create pen and touch. Is that fine?
2) is photoshop elements ok to use? What about corel painter and sketchbook express?

3) How do I save my skin as a PNG. (I am currently using GIMP and it wont let me save as a PNG, but a .xcf

4) How many skins can I make total?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Ight, I know some answers to your question as I also use gimp. You are clicking save instead of export, which saves the file. Below the save option is export, which saves it as the picture. Then you can type in whatevername.png

You can have as many skins as you want. I think I last counted 100 something for me, or close to that. I made a lot of puma cub skins.

I know nothing of tablets so someone else can fill you in with that.

I use a Wacom pen and touch tablet. I believe you can now buy them for under $100 USD (50-70).

PhotoShop elements is okay to use! It was actually one of my first programs. I still will use it for certain things.

If your system can handle it, and you want to get away from GIMP you can download the Photoshop CS2 Legacy edition (free and legal) from the link I provided on this page. There are also other good programs on there: http://beastkeeper.com/thread/5917

I would also be happy to answer any questions you have on it, or share some tutorials that helped me.

I will let you know if I have any questions. Thanks!

Oh, another quick way to save a GIMP file is to press Ctrl+Shift+E.