   strange bone hierarchy in 3ds Max
  Character Studio's default human bone hierarchy is strange in the waist part...IMO, the bone hierarchy should be :pelvis -> { waist( bone over pelvis ), left thigh, right thigh }but the CS default bone hierarchy is :pelvis -> waist -> {left thigh, right thigh, chest ( bone over waist ) }trouble was found when i trying to use the "half-body animation" ( that is , seperate the animation into 2 parts, the "leg animation" and the "upper body animation" ). if i just ignore the animation data of the legs to obtain only the "upper body animation", the upper body acts strange. that's because the "waist" moves and rotates.i wonder why the bone hierarchy is designed in that way, and how to make the "half-body animation" using this bone hierarchy. anyone help me?thanks in advance, and sorry for my bad English...   
  This is because, suprisingly enough, the skeletal system they threw in there is just a framework to play with. You're generally going to be working with custom made skeletons suited for different purposes. The pre-built skeletal system that was included in Character Studio was built for general purpose animation. (I'm more of a Maya user myself, but this is my logical deduction.) Character Studio wasn't designed specifically for animating characters for games, let alone specifically designed to by default be setup for the half-body animation youo're trying to do.If you want a skeleton more suited for what you're trying to do, make your own. Really, a decent skeleton can be setup relatively quickly. Either that, or just reroot the hierarchy of that one. It isn't a big deal and is fairly quick and painless (at least in Maya anyways and I'd imagine it is in 3D Studio Max and for that matter, Character Studio).   