This tutorial shows a simple way to set up a skeleton to animate a simple character in 3dsMax using the freeware plugin KVBones:

When you've finished meshing your mesh and you want to animate it, the first thing you must do is set up the bones.  To do this,
click on the 'Create' Tab, click on the 'systems' button, then the 'bones' button.

Uncheck the box next to 'Assign to Children' :

Start the first set of bones at the hip...

and create joints at the knee and ankle ending at the toe...

The bones won't be arranged correctly yet as you can see from the frontviewport:

Move each joint over, starting at the foot and then going up centering it with the mesh.

Select all the bones, hold down the shift button, then drag the bones over and click 'OK' to create a clone.

You may have to line up the joints again.

Now start the spine at the bottom...

Create joints at the waist, the chest, and end at the head.  Then start another chain of bones from the chest joint to start the arm...

Finish the arm...

Then do the same for the other arm...

Then you will have to link the legs to the spine.  To do this first click on the link button in the top left of the screen.  Then click on the top joint of the leg and drag over to the bottom joint of the spine. Make sure you link starting from the leg, not the spine or it won't work.
 

Then do the same for the other leg...

Now the skeleton should be done.  Carefully inspect everything to make sure all the bones are lined up and inside the mesh.

Also select each bone individually and using 'rotate' make sure they all bend correctly.  If they don't you may have layed them down in the wrong order.  Note that you can't move the head, if you want to be able to move the head, you'll have to add more bones.

The mesh will not bend with the bones yet.  We have to assign each vertex to a bone for that to happen.  We will do this now.
Click on the 'Create' tab then the 'space warps' button.  Then scroll down that bar to choose 'Kostya's Plugins".

Hit the KV Bones button then click in a viewport anywhere.  You will see a box is created.

Click on the 'link to Space Warps' button which is next to the 'link' and 'un-link' buttons in the top left.  Then link the box to the mesh (not to the bones).

Then select your mesh and click on the modify tab.  You will see the options come up on the panel for KVBones.

Choose 'Pick Bones' from this panel and a window will appear. Hit 'All' then 'Select'.  This will assign all the vertexes of your mesh to the bones, so when you move the bones the mesh will move with it.

It won't ever assign the bones the way you want it so you will have to reassign them manually.  First start with the left foot which is bone 5.  Click on the 'Show' button and choose bone 5...

It will show which vertices are assigned to that bone.  You'll see the highlighted vertexes are not the ones you want assigned to that bone, so click the box next to 'Assign':

Then while holding the 'Control' key, select the vertices you want assigned to bone 5.

Then while holding the 'Alt' key, select the vertices you want to unassign from bone 5

Now you should have the vertexes correctly assigned to bone 5:

Now you have to do this for every bone in in your skeleton.  Once you know how to do it, this shouldn't take too long. 

IMPORTANT! Do not use the 'Pick Bones' button again once you've started to assign your bones. If you do, the program will reassign the vertexes all over again. To assign vertexes, use the 'Show Bone' button.

When you have assigned every vertex, grab the joint at the bottom of the spine and move it.  The whole skeleton should move with the mesh.  If something like this happens:

Then you've left some of your vertexes unassigned, go back and assign them (make sure that box next to 'Assign'  is checked!).  When all the vertexes are assigned try to move the skeleton again, the whole mesh should move with it:

This is a good time to save your work.

Now comes the most important part.  You have to go through your skeleton and rotate each bone to make sure your mesh bends properly. You must make sure that it will be able to move into any position you want,because you don't want to get half way into your animation only to discover your guy's knees bend wrong when he tries to squat.

Move your skeleton by selecting a bone or a joint then choosing 'rotate'and rotating the mesh with the bone.  Don't try to 'move' the joints or the bones will stretch, which wouldn't look right.  If you rotate a bone and the mesh becomes distorted and doesn't follow the bone properly,it is possibly because you have one or more vertexes assigned to multiple bones.  Go through each vertex and make sure it is only assigned to one bone.  When you finally have all your vertexes assigned properly, you are then ready to animate:

Here for your inspection is the max file of this ready to animate mesh: kvbonestut.zip.

If you find any errors in this tutorial or if you have any questions, email me: fafner_@hotmail.com

Good Luck and happy fragging