I'm starting a project where the client wants me to do some amusing stuff with some pictures. I gather she wants some animated gif type things over the photos, such like those you see on "Elimidate" on TV - bubbles with captions, eyes bugging out, etc. I have Adobe AE's newest pro 6.5 version. I suppose that's where you would start. Where can you get the animations and do you have any tips?

i would start by importing buble clip art into illustrator and cleaning it up

then import into after effects and animate them with an alpha mask...do about 5-7

then i would bring in my footage into ae or premiere or fcp or any other nle

lay my animations over the footage, and import popping sounds...

thats pretty much my workflow, i did a mock version of blind date in 2001 thats how i did it...

If you have it, PowerPoint has a Callout shaped like the bubbles you mentioned. Select the Action Shapes menu (usually near the lower left corner), then select Callouts, then choose the bubble shaped one. Place it as the only thing on the slide, Save As in PNG format (that will let you set the Alpha channel in AE or your editor - opaque or translucent or transparent).

You might do a few of different sizes and then select the Draw menu, Rotate, and Horizontal so that you'll have some to put on the right or left side of the onscreen talent.