   GPU based skinning
  I am currently wondering if there is a _normal_ means of passing the required matrix and influence data to a shader?My proposed method would be to limit the number of bones which can possible influence a vertex to four which seems the standard, passing the array of matrices into the shader by means of a uniform. For the actual matrix indices ,which will effect the vertex, storing them in the vbo with the vertex and normal etc data using possibly the second texture coordinates; whilst also storing three weights in the vbo using a float3 such as a colour.(only three required as the four can be calculated).Is this the _normal_ method and what other means are possible for the purpose of skinned animation.Thanks.   
  There is a good skinning example in the ATI site. It uses the current D3D10 instancing feature to render large number of models in no time using the Stream Out feature. More so, you can do the rendering multiple times so you can calculate shadows too. The sample uses parallel splits shadow maps to do the shadowing.If you are however interested in doing animation on the hardware the traditional way, try out the dxsdk samples. You'll definitely find a sample there showing how to do skinned animation using either the GPU or CPU. I'd say it is useful to implement an optimized (using SSE3) skinning on the CPU then try on the GPU.[edit]There is still another way of doing skinning on the GPU. Its available in D3D9 so try checking on the feature called Render to Vertex Buffer. Again this is available in the ATI site. This uses a floating point texture to store the various components and doing the rendering on the vertex buffer.[/edit]   