Working without animation angles

I have a platform character that will be able to aim in 8 directions and face left or right (NOT mirrored). In CC I would use animation angles - each angle containing a variation of the animation with the player aiming in different direction. This also allowed me to switch between them seamlessly, since changing the animation angle doesn't restart the animation.

Well C2 doesn't have animation angles, so how do I do this? I remember reading THIS topic Ashley made, with a solution to this very problem at the bottom of the OP, but it doesn't work because you can't have 2 animations of the same name, regardless of what folder they're in!

So..any ideas?

I made this example a long time ago, I think you can use this approach for animation "system" - in my example it only different frames...hope it helps

db.tt/5jbk6yDK

Hm I suppose I could just append a variable to the end of each animation e.g. Walking_Right

Walking_Left

then set the animation to "Walking_" & variable

Kind of like Ashley suggested, but without using folders since it doesn't work like that!

My only concern then is switching from variation to variation without starting from the beginning of the animation.

edit: Ok I think I figured it all out. Will post if I run into any more problems!