I'm completely new in this area. I have 3DS Max 7 and basically, I have absolutely no idea how to make animations using bones in OpenGL (or DirectX or anything). Basically what I want to be able to accomplish is ultimately have model files, animation files, and then be able to "apply" the animations to the models. That way I can make many different items that a character could be holding, or different clothing, but only make one animation. Can anyone lead me in the right direction, perhaps post links to tutorials on this topic? What I especially need to know about is ways to store data for bones. I know how to write converters from, say, .obj format to however I want to save the model because that is simple and just uses vertices but I don't know how bone data is saved or applied to objects. Heck, I don't even know how to export bones from 3DS Max. Anyways, any tips would be of great help. I hope this isn't too broad or not in the right place, sorry if it is. Thanks.

This has nothing to do with the graphics API (OpenGL) and should not be posted in this section.

You might find this page helpful:
http://www.ultimategameprogramming.com/demoDownload.php?category=OpenGL&page=7

This does belong more in the graphics programming and theory forum, but nontheless...

I'd recommend you look into using MD5Mesh and MD5Anim for your animated model and animation formats - They might not be the most flexable, but when it comes down to it - they work, they are an ASCII format - so its easy to double check data - and its pretty much optimised for CPU skinning, which makes it generally quite a pleasure to use. Theres absolutely loads of tutorials about the net, just a short google away, and there is also plenty of source code demonstrating how to actually render the models. Heres a couple of useful links to get you going if you use md5:

http://socratis.dyndns.org/md5/index.shtml

http://www.modwiki.net/wiki/MD5MESH_(file_format)

http://www.doom3world.org/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=2884

Also, some exporters are here:

http://www.quake3bits.com/htm/tools_utilities.htm

Thanks for the links. One thing is, looks like that format is ASCII and if possible I'd want to use binary because it loads faster.