Well, this has been what's occupying most of my creative motivation over the last week or so. Yes, I made extensive use of the Biped tool in 3ds Studio Max 9, but as you can see there are variations in the bipeds and I did all the posing myself. Without details (as this was more a posing and framing exercise), it may not be easy to understand, so I'll lay some groundwork. Also, this is still something of a work in progress, though at the moment it is unlikely that I will fully model this out; it was made more as a reference image than an actual work of art in and of itself.

First, check out my journal here for descriptions about the characters whom these bipeds are representing. All the small, dark blue bipeds are based off of chupacabra, as pictured here. This image is of a fantasy battle based off the setting of the Pathfinder roleplaying system, to be set in a moderately dense forest.

Now I'll go from left to right (mostly). While it may be hard to tell with the angle (and lack of effects), the leaping chupacabra on the far left is being knocked off course from being shot in the head mid leap. The shooter is the yellow guy on the far right in the back, with his musket. He would be the bearded lizard gunslinger, and what makes this reference something of a WIP. He shouldn't be alone back there, unmolested, but I'm not sure at the moment how to have him engaged without completely throwing off his aim in aiding his companion.

Next up, moving more to the background, is my squirrel summoner, mounted atop his Eidolon. Laugh and jest if you must at the Eidolon, but I just needed something to show its existence and give reference to the fact that it is quadropedal and large. In fact, that lower half of a chupacabra sticking out of the sphere is meant to represent that the Eidolon is in the process of eating the thing. While the pose could have been more dramatic, I didn't have a quadroped skeleton to work with and I'm willing to leave the exact pose to any potential artist this gets sent to in the future; this'll tell them where it is and what it's doing in the shot.

Moving to the foreground, we the the wolf fighter/druid cleaving into a chupacabra with his falchion. He doesn't strike nearly as impressive a pose without all his features and lack of ironwood plate armor, but I still felt the pose came out rather well. Seriously, for someone who can't draw anatomty worth crap, posing bipeds is a really helpful tool to illustrate this kind of stuff, at least for reference purposes.

Moving on, in the upper middle portion of the picture we have our lynx rogue. Fleet and nimble as she is, she has run up and lept off the trunk of a tree, evading the lunging swipe of a chupacabra. While airborne, she decides to take the time and help out her bloodthirsy squirrel companion by embedding a dagger in the head of one of the creatures trying to attack the Eidolon. It might be a little tricky to see, but the dagger is the light blue rectangle sticking out of the head of the chupacabra near the Eidolon's front left foot. Personally, her pose is the one I think came out the best.

In the lower right we have the atomaton ankylosaurus. Despite being flanked, he wards off both attackers, one by smashing in the creatures head with his mace, and the other by smashing his shield into the one attempting to leap upon him. This is the pose in this shout that I like the least, as (barring the gunslinger's proper rifleman stance), it seems the least dynamic pose. As he's simultaneously attacking two enemies, that should not be the case.

Anyway, as far as positioning and framing, this came out remarkably close to how I envisioned it. I may tweak and refine it in the future, but for now I think I'm going to give it a break and try to focus on other things. Also, if you feel you have ideas on how to improve the piece, as far as composition is concerned, feel free to leave comment. I'd love to hear from you, as I may be using this method of setting up scenes in the future. As for this piece, when I have money, I do plan to get a commission to do justice to this scene.