Making a tentacle monster? (octopus)

[Outcast]

I am planning to have a big octopus in my game as a "last boss". It is supposed to swing its tentacles around for the player to dodge (the player is moving freely in all directions).
I am having trouble figuring out the best way to do this though. Or frankly how to do it at all. Any suggestions? It seems like a hard task? I was thinking if it was possible to somehow have the "points" of the tentacles moving around the screen and then have the actual tentacle "body" follow these points around?

Here is a pic of what it could look like haha :P https://dl.dropbox.com/u/4047131/MyPublic/Monsta.png

[Monokkel]

One way to do it would be using bézier curves. Very good tentacle-like movements can be made using this method. Here is a link to a tutorial by another clicker:

http://community.clickteam.com/showthread.php?t=42745&highlight=bezier

[TheCrimsonTaco]

Yea thats the way to do it man. look what i was able to make with it

http://youtu.be/dCQyLNY2lw4

[Grim_Jester]

I wonder if a purely artistic approach would work? Draw the tentacles frame by frame for each type of movement and set the collision detection to fine. It might run into problems with speed, but it's worth a try. Do some crude animations.

[TheCrimsonTaco]

haha that would take so much work haha

reminds me of murmasa