I've got an interesting app that shows drums playing. However, all you can see are the drum sticks hitting the correct drums. What I'd really love is to see a virtual person (as lifelike looking as possible) holding the sticks and hitting the drums with them. Is this considered animation? Especially the difference between a life-like looking drummer based on a real person, vs. an animated looking character like in some video games. I don't even know the correct terminology for the question. : )
I know this is an extremely complicated project. And. I could never do this myself. But how can I learn what software packages and type of coding would be used to do something like this, so I can speak competently to a developer I'd like to hire to do it - and have an idea of a fair price for such coding?