Ok, I know what you mean, but still no 'magic' button to create an animation. There might be an on-line web service somewhere, I do not know.
Same as the grumpy cat, you can do a simple animation without any extra scripts or plugins, just standard Gimp tools. A bit tedious - yes but all good practice. Once you get the basics then look around for a bit of automation.
Need to personalize the basics, add a hat to the owl you said, that is where a bit of your artistic skill comes in.
There are any number of how-to's on the internet, yet another one.
https://youtu.be/VY3FBLoff1Y Duration 7 minutes.
Edit:
Quote:..It was in the old days of the internet (2010 or there abouts)...
That makes me feel ancient
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First 'real' internet I had was with a UK ISP, Demon Internet, round about 1994. Before that I actually had an email service via a dial-up bulletin board. Alas no-one at that time to send emails to.