Has Anyone gotten custom animation on the Ethan Rig to work

This is very simple:

In your character controller script you listen for some key combination, like E.

 if(Input.GetKeyDown(Keycode.E))
    playerAnimator.SetTrigger("Pickup");

In the animator you have a parameter (a trigger called Pickup in this example) that fires the pickup animation.

Suppose you want to cast a spell using the left mouse button... First create a new animation state, make a transition from your default state and assign the condition. In this case, it could be a bool named CastSpell. When CastSpeel is true, you transition to the corresponding animation (don't forget to design a transition back).

Now, catch the required input and voila...