This 9 page tutorial on rigging in 3ds Max covers 'almost' everything you should need to know in order to create your own custom character rigs. It starts at the very beginning and skips absolutely nothing. From tinkering with the pivot points to creating custom spline controlled IK's. It also has 2 optional scripts for download to speed things along.
This brief tutorial covers baking light/shadow information from a High Poly mesh to a Low Poly mesh. The same method is used in baking Normal Maps in 3ds Max.
