To begin, a biped is added to the scene and positioned according to the character model using the front viewport. in order to manipulate the shape and scale of the skeleton, the biped must be set in 'figure-mode' which allows you to scale and reshape each bone to suit the model.
the trickiest part of the task was the fact that alterations has to constantly be made to the skeleton in order to get the right scale / size when each limb was positioned which proved to be quite annoying at times but fortunetly didn't cause any major problems.
Once the bone rigging was complete - I can now begin to 'skin' the character, which attaches the bone to the model so when we move the bones, the model moves also..
Previously I had some difficulty in skinning and found it takes a lengthy amount of time to get the desired effect, especially when you define the manipulation strength of each bone manually. So I decided to try a new technique using the Physique modifier in 3ds max.
This method begins by adding a node to the existing model to create the link between bone and skin - if successful, a series of 'veins' can be seen running down the limbs and throughout the bone structure.
These veins are basically selection points which allows you to focus on each individual bone to manipulate - I found this to be a much more effective way to focus on what effect bone movement has on its surrounding areas.
The process is fairly straightforward, playing around with the strength and range settings allow you to quickly see which areas are 'pulled' out of position or are being affected too much by joint movement.
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