Anyone know a good tool that lets a beginner try md2 animation?
Md2 Animation
Miscellaneous Forums/Content Creation Tools/Md2 Animation Milkshape is really easy to make md2 animations for. And it is fairly cheap.
If you already have 3ds max (a big 'if' - I know) then I would recommend the QTip plugin (http://www.qtipplugin.com/) . . . it's the easiest way to create MD2s that I've come across.