hehe… if its non human maybe look into CAT as your animation tool. Im also a noob. Well i am a noob. Not newbie. 
Tips for CAT
Do not use the “Motion Extraction Node” there are far too many issues with it. Sometimes even corrupting your animations.
Instead add a bone on the Hips, Link it to your Main Helper, and link your hips to the new bone.
If animations start crashing, chances are that animation layer is corrupt. If it was a cat motion layer… its possible to extract the settings and import it on a new CAT Motion layer.
Make use of World adjustment layers and Local Adjustment layers.