Help with animation curves on legacy animations

Hi! I am trying to start using animation curves, to detect when to apply damage through the animation. Some of my animations are in FBX format, and I understand how to operate with curves there (through the curves drop down in the import settings), and as I understand, that manipulates the respective variable in the animator. But I also have a lot of animations in the .anim format, in that case, how can I use curves to manipulate the animator values?