Hey /3/! Sorry if this is such a dumb question, But I don't

image files with alpha channel/transparency

yes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vY7waCP0aA

>>506866
I don't see how you can make a 2D model with bone system.
But you can make a 2D like render of your 3D model.
You should make the animation in 3D and then render your characters in 2D style with the outlines and your background in 3D style.
Then put them together.
This is what I think you should do, just google how to do it. Good luck! :)

>>506887
Of course you can, not only that, you can make it with bilboards that flip direction to the camera, so whenever you're looking at it. I don't know if it can work in sfm out of the box, but it's certainly doable in 3d and probably in blender.

>>506887
It's no different than envolpoing anything else. It's just that all your vertices share a z value.

>>506887
South Park is all animated on 3D planes in Maya. It's not hard to do. You just create your 2D drawing, apply it as a texture to a flat 3D mesh, and rig that mesh.

>>506866

The key word you'rd looking for is "Texture Atlas". This concept involves creating a single image with all the different body parts separated. these parts are then mapped to plane objects in ur 3d editor of choice. so you just animate the planes as if you're animating an armature, bing bang boom, mission accomplished. Unity has an asset called the corgi engine that does this (very efficient). Flash and whatever iPhone programmers use can download Dragon bones, which does the same thing.