In this paper, we propose a whole animation pipeline for data-driven character animation. Considering that the traditional animation pipeline, including skeleton reconstruction from markers, rigging and retargeting, is subject to potential loss of information and precision, our objective is to control in real-time articulated meshes from a low number of positional constraints. Our method is based on an efficient deformation technique that integrates into a volumetric control structure the high resolution mesh, the skeleton, as well as relevant marker locations. An iterative optimization method, which preserves both geometric characteristics, segment lengths and joint limits, is applied to this structure. We show the ability of our system to interactively animate and deform high-resolution models from few positional constraints, while keeping all the details of the movement.