Holy hell, thank you so much for the tip about converting the files. I'm working on it rn and the improvement is palpable!
Thank you!!
Happy I could be of help! Layered images can be a bit tricky to figure out at first, if you need any help with them the best guide I've found is this one: https://gruntsteel.itch.io/distant-travels/devlog/452114/how-to-set-up-layeredimages-in-renpy-new-sprite-teaser