Hello. I am looking to get familiar with a design tool used for creating digital media. Specifically I will be creating assets for web pages as well as sprites for mobile gaming. I am a software engineer so I have some limited experience using PS, Flash, etc. There seems to be a lot of overlap in terms of functionality between PS, FW, and IL. Since I will be investing time to learn Illustrator (which will be considerable) I wonder if it's the best tool for my needs.
If I would like to create icons, banners, sprites (.png) should I learn Illustrator? Or should I be using something like FW?
Thanks!
-Nick