I'm not sure how to describe what I want to do but I'm guessing there is a way to do it. Here's an example of the issue. 

I have a werewolf character. Same shape as the regular actor, some graphic (almost), but looks are different - one is obviously quite hairy. I want to create my actor, put in the bones, pose  the character throughout various scenarios, and be able to switch (like sprites) between the normal character and the werewolf character on the same bone/puppet/rig. Do I have to make two actors and animate both identically, then turn visibility off/on when necessary to show when and not the other? And animate them identically? Isn't there a way to make a single actor that contains the bones, and switch the sprite using the same bone/rig? It looks like the controls are there to allow something like this but I can't figure out how to do it. I see on free bone characters I create there is a sprite editor function, that seems to allow me to add sprites, etc. When I try this I get one character with bones, and when I switch to the "hairy" sprite character it ignores the bone position (it doesn't recognize the bones/rig). I'm pretty sure there has to be a way to do this but I can't find a tutorial. My apologies for not using the proper terminology. Terminology may be a reason I can't find the right tutorial.

I'll be glad to explain further. 

Any help?