Animation Loaders

[SorcererXIII]

What is the best loader to use with animation? I want to be able to load keyframe animation from a 3D package (preferably Maya, though 3DS Max would also be acceptable).

If there is a loader that supports skinning that would be best, though I could work around it. It would also be nice to have morphing / blending.

I have read that the xj3d loader handles a lot but that it is slow to load. I'm not sure if the vrml97 loader handles animation at all and it is pretty old. I have also one or more 3ds loaders on j3d.org with zero documentation but that claim to support animation.  But I'd rather take someone's recommendation before I go trying all of these.

Thanks for your advice!