1. A method for converting animation of an object from a first tool to a representation used in a runtime animation system, wherein the first tool represents the object using a source structure and a source mesh, and wherein the runtime animation engine uses a target structure, a target mesh and shading, the method comprising: receiving a source animation including the source structure and the source mesh, the target structure, and the target mesh; determining a transform between a source coordinate space of the source mesh and a target coordinate space of the target mesh based on an alignment between the source mesh and the target mesh; adding virtual bones to the target structure based on locators within the source mesh that are positioned on the source mesh at major deformation areas, the locators are user identified locations on vertices of the source mesh, each of the locators includes a position on the source mesh, an orientation and a spin; computing skinning weights for associating the target mesh to the virtual bones, wherein the skinning weights are computed by identifying points on the target mesh that correspond to the locators; processing the locators for each frame of the source animation to transform displacements of each locator from the source coordinate space to the target coordinate space to produce a set of animated deformation data that specifies displacement values of each locator for each frame of the source animation; and moving the virtual bones within the target structure based on the set of animated deformation data for each frame of the source animation to convert the animation of the object from the first tool to the representation used in the runtime animation system.