Skyrim has plenty of mods to overhaul your magic casting experience to be something slightly more viable, but there aren't all that many mods that take those magic spells and give them a bit more flair. That's where the Goetia Animations - Magic Spellcasting Mod comes in. Modder Verolevi has created over 100 animations "from scratch" that completely change the way your character slings spells in third person.
The mod comes with a "heavy focus on gameplay consistency," according to the description. This means that the mod’s animations smoothly transition from one to the next no matter what the character is doing. Whether the player is running, walking, sprinting, or swapping, the fireball you launched from your hands will evenly transition to a healing aura and then to a metaphysical bow and arrow.
Take a look at the trailer below to see a selection of new animations, from the idly holding spells to swapping and equipping new spells. There’s also new animations for channeled spells, and it works just as well for characters that hold a spell in one hand a sword in the other (or another weapon entirely. The mod also fixes the jittery animations where a character is aiming a spell and running at the same time.
Keep in mind that you’ll need the Dynamic Animation Replacer mod to make the Magic Spellcasting Mod work. DAR replaces "actors' animations depending on various conditions," and is used in a lot of other Skyrim animation mods.
Verolevi also has a number of other mods, including several Vanardang Animations mods for improved bow and sword animations. They also recommend the True Directional Movement for even smoother and more lifelike movement animations.
It’s recommended that you install Goetia Animations - Magic Spellcasting Mod using a mod manager (of which there are several). You can also install the mod directly by unzipping the files to your Skyrim “Data” folder, but that’s not recommended as mod managers make it far easier to go from the modded to unmodded game.