Hello, I would like to know the flow for making modern 2D game artwork.

How are the assets made nowadays? Bitmap? Vector-based? Hand-drawn and painted? Drawn digitally? Modeled in 3D and exported to bitmaps?

I would like some information on programs as well, for fine looking art. Why does Flash's vector art style look good in most games? How do I make equivalent graphics with external tools? Or equaly good and not vector-based, anyway.

Any special hints for animating?

An answer oriented towards a one-man-army indie developer with little experience but some artistic sense would be appreciated! Not a complete dummy with paint programs, but also not a master at all, just need efficient ways to achieve results.

Thanks.

NOTE: Pixel art is not the goal of this question, nothing related to direct pixel manipulation should be brought up here, but you're free to do exactly that :)