In need of the right strategy for animations

Are they going to be actual 3D objects or sprites - It sounds like your boardgame is going to be 2D (even if viewed in 3D) so Sprites may be simpler.

I would approach this by having one image containing the whole series of animations for the sprites. Texture the sprites each with this image.

Then, assign a special variable to each smiley, which determines which animation sequence it is running.

For instance:

For Update.Smileys = Each Smileys

Update\Animation = Update\Animation + 1
If Update\Animation > 8 then Update\Animation = 0

BrushTexture anim_brush,anim_texture,(Update\Animframe + (Update\Sequence*9))
PaintEntity Update\Sprite,anim_brush

Next

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In this example, the smileys are all stored as Types, the animation sequence image is loaded as a texture called anim_texture, and each sequence is 9 frames long. You can select the sequence with 'Sequence' Field, then the actual frame (Animframe Field) will increment each loop.

Sorry, I know my explanation isnt that good. Its late and Im about to go to bed... If you still need more info, Il get back tomorrow.

(Oh anyone else, feel free to embellish I know my code's not the most efficient - at least a Mod command should be in there somewhere...) :)