>>7693287
I find the tutorials to be incredibly simple or they teach things just downright wrong, like the one about gems and shiny things. They're alright for what they are, but I feel they create some bad habits with both animation and stylistic choices, erring on the side of overly cartoony and simple.

>>7693884
there are a couple of ways, but you're pretty much guaranteed to have to do manual cleanup no matter what.
Pixatool/SpriteMancer/Pixel Composer are all tools specifically for downscaling and palettizing, and would definitely be the quickest method, albeit a bit scuffed. The method I tend to use when downscaling first is open in the image editor of your choice and downscale with Lanzcos-3 Non-Seperable, then bring it into a palettizing tool or draw over it from there. I use this method for texture work on 3D models, as shown in this image.

>>7693546
I will try to go over this myself tomorrow before I start working on job things. I'm still really exhausted from the trip, so not doing it today.