Completely new to modding for halo, so not too technical plz

Doing 2 uni projects:
1: Need halo models and a viewer. Need to run animations and take keyframe images for animation perposes.
2: Need halo models and additionaly bipeds, to be viewed in 3d max.
Using these models to add havoc physic ragdoll effects, to be used in macromedia Director. Namely Grunt model.
In Halflife and other games it was pretty simple to use a model viewer to view the models, rotate them, and run thier animations.
Is something simular around for halo 1,2,2v,3??
Id prefer one of the newer ones obviously as there better graphicaly.
I have halo2 on xbox but no modding facilities for that.
Was thinking of getting Halo 2 vista to run on my XP machine, just to edit, unless its very easy to get the Model viewer program + models around.
On that note i did find Halo 2 models on FileFront, but dont know if they are from Xbox or PC.
All the files are .obj files. Split into models. ie Elite model has 33 .obj files, 1 .mtl file and a folder of textures in .dds format
Tried importing these in 3d max but cant remeber how to get textures on the parts or if importing right. The obj files seem to be the models in parts also, ie Elite made up of head, arms, helmet, body etc in seperate files.
Anyway if anyone grasps what im after comment more than welcome. Just want to see whats available and what avenues i can go down.
Thnx for ur time ^-^