A character assembly is a special type of group for objects particular to a character setup: the character mesh, bones, IK chains, helper objects, controllers, and other objects used to animate characters. Once the objects are grouped (assembled), you can perform various functions on the group as a whole, such as saving and loading animation for the entire bone/mesh set.
By default, the character-assembly commands listed here are not part of the 3ds Max user interface. To add them, choose Customize menu 
Customize User Interface, click the tab representing the part of the UI to which you'll add the commands (Keyboard, Toolbars,
etc.) and then, from the Category drop-down list, choose Characters. Use standard CUI functionality to add the commands.
This command creates a character assembly.
Destroying a character deletes the character assembly node.
Locking a character assembly prevents the character from being animated. Use these commands when you want to prevent accidental animation of the character, such as when the animation process is complete.
Choose this command to insert a previously saved character into the current scene.
Saving a character saves a character assembly at its current location, including its node, all members, and any animation on its members. Use this command for storing a character assembly to disk prior to inserting it into another scene.
When the Skin modifier is first applied to a mesh, the bone structure's current pose is used as the skin pose. Subsequent animation of the bone structure on frame 0 can cause the skin pose to be altered. The skin pose commands allow you to change and set the skin pose either before or after you apply the Skin modifier.
