What do you use and why?

photoshop, adds some pop to the sig, some people want animated.

Animation is large but for general and small animation
Photoshop but if you are looking for more complex animation theres more software

I mean yeah of course photoshop is OG. I used to use it when I was in college. Unfortunately, it's expensive. I'm looking for something either free or with a one-time fee.

Maybe Gimp since its the free alternative to photoshop?

clip studio may be what you're looking for
another option is procreate for ipad
you can animate on blender which is a free program used by professionals across many art fields

Thanks man I will look into this