First of all I’m a professional software developer with experience in various frontend libraries like WPF, Xamarin, and Vue js.
How much work would it require for me or someone else to implement basic animation into mypaint? By basic I mean a timeline and playback.
I really like MyPaint for when it comes to sketching and painting compared to the other free alternatives. But I’m also interested in doing animation and that’s something MyPaint is currently lacking.
As it currently stands, I don’t think MyPaint will ever have support for animation, cause it’s kinda beyond it’s scope. A great alternative would be Krita if you want frame by frame animation. Plus they integrated our brush engine into itself so you have that too.
It can’t be all that hard… Because it’s been done already to some extent
Also
http://libregraphicsworld.org/blog/entry/mypaint-and-blender-powered-open-animation-movie-released
So, I’d say go for it. 
Oh, well that is news to me.
