Animation control

Hi
I want to have some control over player animations,
like
1. playing mulitple animation sequences one after the other
2. calculate the running time of player animations
3. detect the end of an animation
4. blending of animations like a player runs and fires at the same time.

I have tried the followin lines

function Player::playMyAnimation(%this)
{

%this.playThread(0,"celsalute");
%this.schedule(1500,"stopThread",0);
%this.schedule(2000,"playThread",1,"celwave");

}


This code works some times and sometimes it doesnt work, I have also tried setActionThred but in vain. plz help me in this regard
Thanks