I built a proof-of-concept for using icon fonts for sprite animations. The result feels a little too gif-ish for my liking, but this is just a proof of concept. I could have added more frames to get a more fluid animation.
View the result on CodePen. This is also a good how-to.
I’ve included all of the necessary font files (processed with FontPrep) and the .glyphs files (built using Glyphs App).