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If I have a series of PNGs that I'd like to use as a single animated texture, would I be able to use them as they are, or would I first need to convert them to a different format, like a single TGA?

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There are programs helping you in this task. I personally use Zwoptex. Basically you load all your pngs, it arranges them (translating and rotating each sprite) into a bigger image (you decide the size) called texture atlas. You can then export the atlas with a xml file containing the coordinates of each single sprite in the atlas.

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I'd just like to add: check out sprite sheet packer, which is an open source alternative. But yeah using a texture atlas is definitely the way to go, its much more efficient than using separate files for each frame. (bit more info in my answer here: gamedev.stackexchange.com/questions/27200/…) – Aralox Apr 12 '12 at 8:48
ImageMagick is a command line utility that is capable of combining images in this manner. – stephelton Apr 12 '12 at 18:25
TexturePacker is my favorite, but regardless note that Zwoptex and TexturePacker are Mac software, Sprite Sheet Packer is Windows, and ImageMagick is platform agnostic. – jhocking Apr 12 '12 at 18:50

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