weighting vertice groups to get animation?

I found this online but was unable to locate the full article. Does this make useful sense to anyone?

Abstract
This paper describes an implementation of vertex weighting for real-time animation of 3D trees as a result of wind force and direction. This method improves over similar techniques because it incorporates individual branch animation on 3D models, whereas previous works perform animations on the model as a whole or use planar billboards to visualize the tree. Our tree animation is used in an interactive system that visualizes the effects caused by a hurricane’s impact on a virtual city. The system uses models created with 3D Studio Max and the animations are implemented in OpenGL and the nVidia Cg shader language.

Thanks

sure, check out Vue6 software for good video on blowing trees and plants. very nice convincing effect.