Under systems I selected Biped and created the skeleton Biped system. I selected the motion tab and with Figure mode turned on I could scale and fit the skeleton into the characters body. I then switched Figure mode off to finalise the skeleton .
The biped is now in place and the next stage is to attach the mesh to the skeleton. I started off by selecting each body part in turn and applying the Physique modifier, then within the modifier I clicked the small figure which allows me to 'pick' which part of the biped to the selected body part. For each body part you apply the Physique modifier to, you always attach it to the BiP01 which is the parent of all the biped bones. this selection always attaches the right bone to the right body part.
Once all the bipeds have been initialized with the body parts the limbs will now move more or less like a real body limb should move. However in some cases when parts of the body move, some stray vertices will be left behind, this is because the physique modifier's envelopes haven't completely covered all the vertices and is fixed by selecting envelopes under the physique modifier's stack and using the scale tool to make the envelopes bigger to cover all the vertices.
Now with the biped system finished I can make the character walk. Under the Biped parameter within the motion tab I clicked on the footsteps mode. Inside the Footstep creation panel I selected Create multiple footsteps and 'walk'. This box allowed me to select everything from how many footsteps to the length of stride and pace of the characters walk.
After several different attempts I was settled on the render below. The character has a slight limp which I think suits his eccentric personality. I also quite liked the effect of the characters robe shifting along the shoulders.
