Creature Hand Tutorial

By Erin Nicholson

Intro
Hello! The following is a short tutorial that I've created to demonstrate how to model simple three-finger hand in 3dsmax 5 and 6. It's neither realistic or completely cartoony. Although this isn't an advanced tutorial, those attempting it should be familiar with the editable poly object and the tools within it, such as ring, loop, grow shrink, extrude, bevel, etc.

Theory
To begin, we start with a box. Exact dimensions aren't critical, but try to match the proportion of the box in the diagram:

Figure 1.


Convert the box to an editable poly. Marquis select groups of edges in the viewport and move them into the shape scene in figure 2:


Figure 2.


Select the four polygons shown in figure 2. Use the extrude tool to create the 3 digits in the index and pinky fingers. Use the bevel tool as shown in figure 3 to bevel the tips. Create the middle finger in the same manner.



Figure 3.


Select the edge loops(using the loop button) in the middle of each joint as seen in figure 4. Move the edges together away from the palm, to create the finger pad indents and the knuckles.



Figure 4.


Select the raised polygons(knuckles) on the backs of the fingers and scale them up in the z axis as seen in figure 5.



Figure 5.


On the palm side of the hand, select the polygons shown in figure 6 and scale them down in the x-axis.


Figure 6.


Select the polygons of the little finger and rotate them outwards and reposition the selection as seen in figure 7. Tip: Use the grow button at the top of the editable poly parameters to make it easier to increase the selection from the finger tip to the base.


Figure 7.


Next, select the polygon where the thumb will extrude from, and rotate it towards the palm, as shown in figure 8. This rotation will put the thumb in a more natural, downward angle when you do extrude it from the palm.


Figure 8.


To create the thumb, we extrude it in the same way that we did for the fingers. The difference is that we only extrude out two joints. The result of these extrusions is illustrated in figure 9.


Figure 9.


Once again we scale the the knuckles of the thumb inward, exactly as we did with the fingers. The result is shown in figure 10.


Figure 10.


We are now going to add some more loops to the hand. First, select a vertical edge polygons between the thumb and forefinger, and the thumb and wrist. While these two edges are selected, press the ring button to select the two edge rings above and below the thumb. Then press the connect button. This will create new loops above and below the thumb. Take a look at figure 10a if you're lost. The ring button and the connect button are both shown in the panel on the right side.



Figure 10a


In figure 11, you can see where I've added another edge loop in the same way and begun to give the hand model a more natural shape.


Figure 11.


The next step is just pulling out the edges along the top of the palm to create the padded area at the base of the fingers, as shown in figure 12.


Figure 12.

I also pull out the polygons below the base of the thumb to make the shape more natural, as shown in figure 13.


Figure 13.

The thumb needs more geometry to make it appear more rounded, so I've added another edge loop using the ring and connect buttons, as we did for the palm. See Figure 14. You'll also noticed that I've created indents at the joints in the same way that it was done for the fingers.


Figure 14.


Now it's time to add some the contours of the palm. To do this, we select the edges, as shown in figure 15, and use the connect tool to create a new loop connecting them. Both sides of the hand are shown so that it is easy to see which edges are being selected.


Figure 15.