Details such as muscles basically involves further dividing polygons and moving points. It takes a lot of time and patience to sculpt the muscles, but if you�re willing to make the extra effort you will learn a lot about modeling and anatomy. As you work back and forth pushing and pulling points between low polygon and subdivision mode you may want to try a couple of these helpful hints. Do most of your sculpting in the Single Perspective Wireframe Shade window. Create a numeric keyboard shortcut for this view and be sure to turn off Show Cages and Show Grid. Show Guides should be on. Set the background to a medium green color. Now, when you work in subdivision mode in this single view window, look for the light blue Guide lines. Clicking at the end of these Guide lines lets you easily select and deselect points. Insert extra points so that they follow the direction of the various muscle groups. When you split polygons, you will in effect connect these points yielding natural curves and lines. Groups of two or three parallel lines are useful for creating grooves where two muscles meet. Pulling back on the middle line will form the furrow.

The Shoulder and Arm



1. You can start at the shoulder to model the deltoid (shoulder muscle) and clavicle (collar bone). Divide the polygons so that you can pull out specific points (Fig. 1). Two lines running parallel and close together can be used to make inden- tations where two muscle groups meet. One set can be pulled up while the other is pushed down. Use an anatomy book for reference. Work back and forth in low poly and subdivision mode. Make sure you only have 3 and 4 sided polygons. Delete any 1 and 2 point polys.

2. Try to move points mostly in subdivision mode using the Perspective Wireframe and Wireframe Shade windows. To keep the arm from looking blocky, you will most likely have to divide polygons so that more than four lines run up and down the arm.

3. Work on the upper arm and then move down toward the lower arm. Figure 2 shows the completed upper arm in sub- division mode.

4. The lower arm will also need more lines running lengthwise toward the wrist. Insert extra points in places where the muscles are more prominent. Then connect them by selecting them in order and splitting the polygons. Be sure to use some reference material such as an anatomy book that shows the muscles from various viewpoints. 5. Figures 3 and 4 show the finished lower arm both in low poly and subdivision mode.


The Leg Modeling the muscles of the leg is a similar process to sculpting the arm muscles. Therefore, the leg will be next fol- lowed by the torso.





1. The thigh or upper leg muscles are long and well rounded. As they approach the knee they become more angular.

2. Use the same technique as outlined for the arm which is to split polygons along the length of the leg. Lines that are close together define two muscle groups and the concave shape between them.

3. The lower leg muscles become round and then taper at the ankle to become more angular.

4. Figures 5, 6, 7, and 8 illustrate both the low poly and subdivision mode of the completed leg.