I am working on a medieval isometric RPG in which the player can ride on horses and in horse drawn carriages. The player's movement is not restricted to the common eight directions; he may move in whichever direction he points his joystick in. What is stumping me is the problem of animating this sucker. I'd rather not have my horse and carriage sliding along unnaturally at an angle to their animation's direction, but I would also like to keep my player movement system.
I have considered a snake-like algorithm where the carriage parts bend along a curve when they turn, but I am not sure this can be done with 2D artwork. I have also considered creating large numbers of animations for the horse and carriage, but this is too time intensive to be feasible.
Now maybe I'm off topic and maybe this question is going to get deleted, but I am wondering if anyone out there can either suggest an idea on this or point me to a game which has implemented thi kind of functionality before (with cars, carriages, or other kinds of vehicles).