I would say number 1

ovidiu : Basicly you draw your joints, and set up constrains on how they will react with FK/IK in Maya. Then you bind the model to the final skeleton (this is called Skinning). Make all sorts of adjustments to make the skin move with the skeleton in a correct way. And then you start to animate.

A good thing is to go through the Maya tutorials first, then take a look at thetutorials on this site, for more in-depth information.

I wish you the best of luck.