The best way we’ve found is image sequences. output a .png sequence, and it’s super easy to play those as animations at will.
makes it very straightforward and simple way to deal with animations… too many things go goofy with video formats. 🙂
it’s also easier to deal with pauses, and having what you pause on be nice looking. you can go back and forth in the animation, and it’s just a matter of telling the thing which frame to show.