What program should i use to animate my actors?

I use photoshop to make my actors but I am wondering is there an easier way to get the different frames I need for the running, jumping, idle animations etc. im very new to this and any help would be apreciated.

each animation is a fame on its own. So you have to create each frame by hand, or you us a spine based animations program, which takes different limbs, and animates them. But I don't know any of these programs by name.

I use Flash, you can get 30 day trials of old copies (flash 8, 2004, 2008, etc) and 2014 - that's 4 months of free Flash. 

You can then export the animation as a png sequence.  Using the Onion Skin tool comes in handy

Spine - http://esotericsoftware.com
Creature (only Mac at the moment, windows coming soon) - http://creature.kestrelmoon.com
Spriter - http://www.brashmonkey.com

or , since  you are already using Photoshop, why not just use the Animation Timeline (Motion)?
separate your actor into parts (head, hands,legs..etc), and animate them manually.
well, not a fast solution like those software above,  but it does the job.

If you already have PS I would stick with that.  Spriter is pretty cool but unless all your art assets are done (as in they don't need any tweaking) it's easier to go back in forth in PS.  I'm using PS right now to do some pixel art animations and it isn't too bad to work with.

thank you guys i will give these a try

I use Flash, you can get 30 day trials of old copies (flash 8, 2004, 2008, etc) and 2014 - that's 4 months of free Flash. 

You can then export the animation as a png sequence.  Using the Onion Skin tool comes in handy

Export as a .png sequence has become available from CS6 version so not sure how is possible to do it on Flash 2004?

Photoshop - just create frames one on each other using groups of layers so you can use group/layer opacity to simulate "onion skin" effect.

I've used export as png sequences in Flash 8