Custom bush hat "use" animation

[keraunoscopia]

I'm working on custom bush hat that functions just like the original, but has a different appearance.  I'm having trouble with the custom animation that plays when you right-click the equipped hat to use it.

 

Digging into the code and assets for the bush hat, I see that the player (and not the bush hat item) has animations called "hide" and "hide_idle" for using the hat and displaying a bush, respectively.  The hide animation combines the character animation with several bush hat images called (IIRC) "swap_bushhat1", "swap_bushhat2", etc.

 

It looks like I need to create a custom player animation - called "hide_customhat", let's say - that combines the standard "hide" animation with custom hat images.  Then I would use AddStategraphState to add states to play hide_customhat when the hat is used.

 

My questions are:

(1) Is the approach I outlined sound, or is there a better way?

(2) Can anyone point me to some resources or examples of how to create a custom player animation like this?

 

I appreciate any advice you can give!