I have modeled a character for animation. He’s standing there in T-position and waiting to be rigged. My problem is:
I don’t know how this is done and I did not find a tutorial or example file with a ‘standard’ skeleton. I have no problem with learning, but I would appreciate if someone could help me with some hints (where is the ‘root’ bone, etc…) or a blend file.
Thank you
Blendo has always been a very good reference for armatures. It’s a rather simple subsurf model that uses a very efficient skeleton with inverse kinematics. Check it out, here’s the URL to the model.
I usually place the root bone right at the base of the spine, and I think there is an armature example in the docs. I think I have some links to other armature tuts somewhere too, so I’ll dig them up for you BRB. Of note, it is important to set the deformation strength for the individual bones if you want your model to distort properly.
This one is pretty good. It would appear my favorite one is no longer available though. 
http://www.be3d.org/video_tutorials/armature_basics_html/armaturebasics2.htm
Thank you both of you. Again, the cool people are found at elYsiun!
You’re character is in the T pose, eh? You’ll get better deformations if you tweak that a little. Joints half flexed is a good rule. Elbows, half bent, shoulders at 45 degrees instead of 90, knees bent, feet at least shoulder width apart, etc.
You’ll thank yourself later!
think about it this way -> when you model something, you aim to make it look right. then you stick a skeleton in it and deform it to hell and back. the further you rotate the bone, the more it deviates from the state you want it.
so, if you model something roughly in mid pose, then the extremes of rotation will be smaller, and so will the deviation. eyelids are a good example -> model them open and they are far more likely to be messed up when you animate them closing; model them halfway and they will look ok both open and closed.
make any sense?
later
BEAT
ps-> yes, i know this isn’t the answer to your question, but it gave a little more detail to the previous post about rigging.
Thanks! If you wouldn’t have told me about this, I would have had to find out myself. And I don’t consider rigging as the fun part in blender…
On the same note, don’t model the arms in T position. Model them at roughly a 45 degree angle from the body. 
<<edit>> oops I just realized I repeated what someone else already said. pardons. 
well, that’s YOUR personnal opinion 
Martin
Rigging is fun. I’m always working to come up with the most intuitive, simply controlled, but best-reacting character rig I can devise.
Good luck. Hopefully you’ll share the results of your work when you’re done.
I was playing with IK solvers yesterday, in combination with record mouse to make a dancing string bean hehehe! It was hilarious! Nico, you really should try it…to record mouse movements, just select 2 or more parameters (such as x and z) in the IPO window and hit R. Choosing ‘still’ is easier than ‘play’ or whatever it is. Then press/release CTRL to start/stop recording.
You can record mouse movements? :o
I wasn’t aware of that either. You really do learn something new every day.