The beginning of the end, and the end of the beginning. I've re-written the core controls and root versions of nearly half the animations so that motion can be driven by root rather than code.
it's reduced significantly the code overhead and chances for bugs. I'm very happy with the change, and it feels like a new beginning for the template.
it's still way too bloated and needs more stripped out and reduced to make it more useful to adapt to new projects, but this is a great start.