looked everywhere in tiles folder, couldn't find anything that makes a single tile kind have variants. Anyone have a clue?
No, I think objects have a different system since they can be different sizes, whereas tiles are all uniform. EDIT: You CAN have variants on tools and such. At least, the paint gun has variations for its image, but it is set up in a separate *.frames file. So it may be possible to cycle other tool's images as well.