[stonemetal12]

>'Inverse kinematics' feels rather scary though, so wonder if anyone might have any very basic tutorials on this.

You might look into graphics programming and 3d modeling. For example Blender supports Inverse Kinematics for creating character animation.

[anfractuosity]

That sounds a good plan, I've played with Blender a little, only for very simplistic stuff, but will have to look into its IK support.

[stonemetal12]

Found the article I was thinking about when I wrote the comment above.

https://wiki.blender.org/wiki/Source/Animation/IK