Along with the speedy crowd system, CS3 includes a much faster Physique. Physique is the part of CS3 that takes a single piece mesh and deforms it according to a skeleton. You start by taking your cool looking mesh and positioning it over a biped. Next, you scale and rotate the various bones in the biped to match the mesh as close as you can. Apply physique to the combo and there you go - almost. The bane of any deformation system is things that change as they bend like joints and muscles. As with deformation systems in other packages you need to work with envelopes (areas of effect) to make each joint bend properly. CS3 includes the expected tools like shaded weight maps to help you. For muscles CS3 has an angle based bulge tool that is straightforward and works the way you expect it to. Physique is certainly the tool to make your biped look like a finished product, but it can also be used on other skeletal systems. Along with the speed improvements, Physique's whole system has been improved and overall it works well. I was able to create acceptable deformations in a reasonable amount of time.

CS3 will not create 100% real to life characters for you, but it will save you a lot of time since all human movements have the same roots. This makes it a great tool for experienced character animators since they can concentrate on the finer points without wasting time on the basics. For people who aren't experienced character animators CS3 is a great tool because it lets them easily create very good biped animation. The crowd system is useful to the entire range of users out there especially since its scope reaches beyond character animation. Two really important features of CS3 are the ability to make changes without having to redo everything, and the ability to re-use your work. I absolutely recommend CS3 to anyone doing any sort of character or crowd animation with 3D Studio Max.