Most major 3d formats, including 3ds can contain animation data. The best way to animate these is to use a 3d modeller program like milkshape 3d to animate joints(if you're using DBPro), but it is also possible to animate the limbs of an object with DB itself, and then save the animation to a file. If you look in the code snippets section of this forum, and look at my thread "Limb Animator", there is a code there showing you how to animate 3d models and saving the animation. However, this code only works in DB Classic, but even if you use Pro, it will make things about animation objects clearer.
Whatever I did I didn't do it!