Yeah, I have rigged Link with no problem from scratch and with bones lol
My animations are solid and have life to it, but the one thing is I have to use IK animations without motion capture =/
It would help TREMENDOUSLY if I had motion capture with a .bip file
And yes, I believe if we worked together it would help.
However my model of Link and other characters are based on Nintendo 64 hardware, I am not sure what your character's models are consumed of and judging by your screen shots I would estimate around 1000 or more, give or take?
Anyway, yes I am highly experienced with 3D Studio Max and the animation plus IK, BIPED and so on.
I have around 4 and a half years with Max and Character Studio animation