I have recently purchased this asset from the3dstudio.com:
http://www.the3dstudio.com/product_details.aspx?id_product=193089
It has a corrupt .3ds file available, and a .max (as well as what appears to be a broken .dfx and a textureless and animation-less .obj).
I wrote the site administrator, who attempted to make me a new .3ds file from his master copy (I'm assuming the working .max file) but said:
"The .3ds export doesn't seem to be completed so normally we would just re-export it but I can't get a good export on this model. Only the low-poly control mesh wants to export so I emailed the author to see if they can get us a better file and will let you know as soon as they reply.
"With any non-max format you will not have any rigging in the model as common formats (3ds, dxf, obj, etc) do not support things like rigging (which are program specific) so any export to 3DS (and thus C4D) would just be the geometry, textures, and basic materials."
So it was my understanding based on my very limited knowledge and this e-mail I got that none of the formats that I'd be able to get into Cinema 4D would be able to carry animation data. Then I saw this Elance job posting:
http://www.elance.com/j/convert-3d-studio-max-animation-cinema-4d/19612175/
Now obviously that's not, like, internet canon: I realize just because there was a listing on some site somewhere that made it seem like it was possible doesn't make it true. But it looks like that team in India was willing to do it for sixty bucks, which makes it hard to believe it could be that in-depth of a process. But maybe that's my naïveté about either 3D or American to Indian currency conversion rates or both.
So, is this possible?