Hi all,

I'm working on a pitch for an animated kids DVD series and wondering if Houdini (downloading free apprentice now) has the ability to do the following:

*Record mouse input to drive real-time morph deformation
*Keyframe smoothing
*Layered morph nodes with data that can either be recaptured or edited
*Allow me to import objects with morphs from LightWave.

If so, how accessible are these things to a single newbie with minor programming skills, and how fast is the renderer compared to LightWave?



BTW, I think I'll love some of Houdini's uber flexible tools (like dynamics, procedurals, etc.), but I'm quite concerned that many simple things will require extreme learning curves.

Replys are much appreciated. -Mike