adding animations

I'm trying to make the TFT menu screen characters playable in game. I've deleted all the geosets except the ones that the character uses and now I am trying to animate them. My question is, is there an easy way to do this? I would like to take animations from an exsisting model and transfer them (if that is possible). Oinkwinkles animation transfer tool won't work (most likely because th models lack bones). I know people have animated the orc so someone must know how to do this. I thought that maybe I needed to open the model in 3ds and add bones, but then do I have to name them the same as the model that I am taking the animations from? If so do I just set that in the properties menu for each bone. Also, if that is the case is there any may to keep the uvwrap intact when I import the model into 3ds or will I have to reskin it? Any help here would be much appriciated.

P.S.
Does anyone have an obj-> mdx or mdl tool?

You answered your own question. Add bones. Check Cookie's importer tutorial for linking and applying them.