Run cycle will do for the time being. now, the attack animation: His regular "bow pipe" attack, only slightly modified. Still need to animate him settling down and going back to idle pose
The loop tools hidden in the Graphite toolbar have a circle thingy which works fairly well on edgeloops, though you lose some volume. The other option was to select your geometry and use the Spherify modifier.
I rigged it there is some clipping and I know its not done. But here are updates anyways. It looks a little bright to me though, Would changing the base colors be better than using a layer modifier such as levels?
Could you post a wireframe of the lp? Did you try to modify the UVs entirely? Then try also "resetting" the UVs by Normals>Set to face and then set the UV borders as hard edges and the other edges as "soft".
NURMS is basically the same as the smooth/smooth preview function in Maya. I haven't seen the tutorial myself, so unless he uses some specific option within that modifier in Max, then it should be the same in Maya.
Two options I can think of. You could modify a copy of the material to change the z order. Or, create a second camera parented to the primary camera and use another render layer with the z order adjusted.
I did a test with Max 2015, worked flawlessly for me. I had to add a Turn To Mesh modifier, to prevent the FBX UVs from freaking out. http://www.ericchadwick.com/examples/files/Box_Symmetry_2015.zip
Bring the UVs back into 3ds Max, apply the texture to the model so it shows in the viewport, and apply a UVW Unwrap modifier to edit the UVs. This will let you see the 3d model while you edit the UVs.
I had a similar problem to this, a push modifier with a small value fixed it for me. makes no sense but it worked. Your speed issue may be down to Final Gather being left on. this really slows baking down
Looking much better on the second try, these workshops look like they are great for learning. Have you tried adding a subsurf modifier yet? Then you'd be able to see where you need to add controlling loops.