How to blend between user selected poses on a rigged model

Hi,

So I am brand new to Director and need to know where I can most quickly learn the following:

Display a skinned, animated actor with a polycount somewhere in the 10k or less range

Bind poses from the animation rig to keys

Blend smoothly between poses after each key press

Parent the root to a dummy object that is moving along a spline to add a soft bobbing or "idle" motion so the model is never completely still

I am trying to create an interactive display that would feature a floating 3d character.  Ideally the facial bones would be under user control and could be easily blended between happy, sad, angry, suprised, mouth open, mouth closed, etc.  Meanwhile, all other bones would be bound to a cycling animation that could then be blended on the fly as well, e.g. flying/hovering, sitting, lying down, and so on.  The ultimate goal is to have an interactive dragon that can be puppeteered and interact with children.  Initially, I'm just aming to try and get a prototype with a floating head and keyframe blended expressions in the face.  The control over the body can wait for now as I need to get this running ASAP and need to cut any corners I can for the time being to reduce the learning curve.

Thanks.