NeoPixels/Playground Classic and Express

Hello guys,

I'm trying to write a program that displays different Neopixel patterns through a switch case based on a received character on the serial ports of a Circuit Playground Classic and Express (char is from one of a few ESP8266s I've got kicking around)

I want to create the animated patterns with bitmaps as I've got experience in lighting design with them and I'm on a tight timescale, so I've been trying to modify the NeoAnim sketch written by John Park and Phil Burgess, but I can't get it to display one animation after another, which would be a baby step towards building the final sketch w/switch cases etc.

I've also tried adapting make:code, the lightworks (flickerstrips) demo code, the NeoPixel button cycler and several other avenues.

Has anyone tried anything similar or got any suggestions?

I'd need to store about 12 simple animations on each board in total