/*
	This is an example of the simplest solution I can think off. 
	My question is: are there any good standard solutions / practices / patterns
		to deal with animation states? Especially as they get more complex than two states
		I imagine this solution being way too unwieldy to maintain.


	_idleAnimation and _turnAnimation are both members of the GameObject, 
		and children of its DisplayList.
*/
private function updateAnimationState(dx:Number):void
{
	if(Math.abs(dx) < 4)
	{
		start(_idleAnimation);
		stop(_turnAnimation);	
	}
	else 
	{
		stop(_idleAnimation);
		start(_turnAnimation);
		_turnAnimation.scaleX = (dx < 0) ? 1 : -1; //flip left/right
	} 
}

//EDIT: http://gamedev.stackexchange.com/questions/27079/data-driven-animation-states seems like a well researched comment