Just to add to this, I discovered that it is possible to do the following:
1. Use a
two frame animation where the first frame is the "normal" image of the item, and the second is a transparent png, with script as described here.
2. Use a third image to represent the "dragged" item in the image file.
The result is that the animation is used in the item placeholder, but also the image file overrides the animation when dragging.
So the following effect is possibe:
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