Character animation

Hi,

part of my thesis is to implement character animation. So I'd like to contribute here and implement it. Problem is, Helix is rather big for a newcommer so I can't navigate in it much. Mainly I would need help with effects for vertex blending. If someone could explain how effects works in Helix, I'd be grateful.

Consequently with that, there should be another class for 3D character which uses that fx file. From what class should it inherit, how should it be designed?

I would greatly appreciate cooperiation from someone who could give me initial directions where to start, what to study. Regarding my knowledge, I have done most things from Frank Luna in Introduction to DirectX11.