noob: building a character previewer

To make a long question short, I wanna learn how to make this.

I'm not entirely helpless as I can set up animations, apply scripts etc. I guess I would classify myself as an Intermediate Unitard. But I just need some extra help in defining the direction required to start building something like this.

Thx in advance.

 

So 2 weeks down the road and I'm still clawing for a solution. BUT I'm getting closer!! I now have buttons appearing in my UI.

Code (csharp):

1.  
2. function OnGUI() {
3.     //background box
4.     GUI.Box (Rect (10, 10, 100, 200), "Controls");
5.    
6.     // first button
7.     if (GUI.Button(Rect(20, 40, 80, 20), "Hit")){
8.    
9.     }
10.    
11.     // next button
12.     if (GUI.Button(Rect(20, 70, 80, 20), "Die")){
13.    
14. }
15. // blah, blah, blah
16.  
17.  
18.  

NOW I just need to know how to target my character with the animations. Do I control it by calling "animator." that has all the mecanim FBXs?

Code (csharp):

1.  
2. function OnMouseDown(){
3.     Animator.Play("Die");
4.  
5. }
6.  

.... isn't working. =[

Really trying to figure this out on my own.