Hey,
I don't use animation shop, but Ulead Gif Animator.
(It's not free)
But you open a short video in the program,
(to cut a part from a video I use virtual dub which is free)
and you just try some things out.
You can cut some frames, resize it and save it as a GIF file.
There are no real steps to make a animation,
just try some things out. That's how I learned