I want to make a mod to enable the player to raise/lower the shield depending on how high/low you aim your crosshair at when blocking with shields. (similar to the mechanism in Mount and Blade, and Chivalry Medieval Warfare)

I've noticed that the bows in the game can be pointed upwards when being drawn open, and it works with both NPCs and the player's character. I wonder if it's possible to apply this directional behavior to shields as well, and perhaps also melee weapons.

I know a thing or two about how to edit hkx files in the animations folder via BSAbrowser and 3dsmax, but I suspect to implement the idea discussed above I'll need to do fiddle around with those hkx files in the behaviors folder which I have no ideas about. I can't even convert them into kf files with hkxcmd.exe. Does anyone know any tools?

The spell casting animations on NPCs also can be pointed upwards, i.e. NPCs will look up and slightly raise up their hands to shoot at enemies on high ground, but with the player in 3rd person view the char always looks straight ahead and never up or down.