Am I the only person for whom it’s weirdly inconsistent whether my colonists will actually use the animation for the gear they’re using? I’ve got people carrying around axes but still visually kicking trees, carrying pickaxes but visually kicking crystals, etc.
An incredibly minor thing, but I figured I’d mention it to see if it’s just me.
Just had to double check my game… 
No, everyone doing the normal swing with the axe or pickaxe.
The only thing I can think of is if you mixed up your axes and pickaxes with your Foundies? Which would be picked up fairly quickly, I’m sure 
Sounds unusual, can you repeat the kicking action while they still have a pickaxe and mining? If you can, its best if you send a game save to:
daniel@foundersfortune.com
If you have other islands (old) games saved, you could also check to see if its repeatable or not. If it doesn’t repeat, then it would just be something local to your current game.
Good luck 
Ok, totally bizarre; it started working again when I removed my mod I’m currently creating.
But the mod doesn’t touch anything in the realm of animation; the only modifications it makes to the axes and pickaxes is changing the amount of resources and time needed to create them, and switching their effect from increasing yield to decreasing work time. I’m not sure why that would change the animation, but apparently it does… sigh. At least they’re still working, animation aside.
Yes sometimes it is just a case of trial and error.
Set up 3 or 4 small variations of what you have done and test them individually (while keeping a note of what you have done seperately).
Also you can email me with what you have done at: andrew.mailbox@gmail.com
(or use the PM function here)
and I can have a look at it (and test on my computer) and get back to you tomorrow or about 12-15 hours from now - close to dinner time for me 
My people only kick trees when they have other tools than axes. Or other tools than picks for crystals and stones.
The equipmentEffect in the json is responsible for changing the animation.
If there is no effect, they will not use animation and not work any quicker than without tools.
Maybe you removed or replaced it by mistake?
Not by mistake. But that’s the issue, sure enough.
I wanted my axes to use the “FasterForesting” effect rather than the “TreeYieldHigh” effect. So that’s why it’s happening. They’re working as I want them to, but if the animation is linked to that effect, it makes sense what I’m seeing.
I see!
I wish you could add the effect, just with equipmentEffectFactor 1, but unfortunately you can’t have multiple effects on the same item right now.
It’s fine. I switched the effects of axes/pickaxes and their respective clothings, just because it makes more sense to me that a good axe would cut a tree faster rather than yield significantly more wood, etc. Helps with some other things I’m messing with in terms of resource balancing, too. If I have to sacrifice animations for that, it’s a pretty minor loss.