Yep, you use bones as deformers in your 3d program. It's how all modern games and movies animate their characters and props that aren't simulated by physics with the exception of ragdoll physics which also are in games. That way, the game loads the mesh and skeleton once and you load a bunch of animation files which takes up much less space then the old vertex deformation method which was used back in the quake days. Takes more processing though.
Maharg
Maharg