Hi,
I am trying to make a fighting game. Now I have my model in 3ds max, skinned. I am trying to find the best, least painful way to rig the character and create animations for it.

A problem I have with animating in MED is that my game contains fighting, and throws (player grabs enemy and tosses him), so I think I need to have both characters on the scene when I animate the throws. I don't think MED can do that, can it?

I also have a problem where I assigned materials two two groups in max, then I combined the two groups. As a result, I have one group with two materials assigned to it, and I couldn't imagine how I would reskin it.

So I have 3ds max, Poser, Milkshape, MED (and I am open to any other free program out there). Which would be the best method for my rigging and animating= that is, one that wouldn't require any reskinning (I dont have to do that in order to import to gamestudio, do I?), and one where I can have two characters on scene to make an animation for both of them.

Thanks for the help!