Noobish question, help needed

entropia

I'm in the middle of modelling a character I want animate later. The problem is that I'm almost total noob at animating and I want its limbs to pop out from the body and then be animated as usual (walking, moving hands etc.). What's the best way to do it? 
Thanks in advance for any help.

Eric Chadwick

Probably a morph is the best way. What software are you using? Also the design of the character matters, so a picture would help everyone to help you.

Hito

what do you mean by "pop out"? Like eye stalks on a snail or limbs of a tortoise? if that's the case, model it fully extended, then pull it into the body with the rig later when you animate. If it's a bipedal character but floating hands/feet, model and rig in standard A-Pose or T-Pose.

Rmunday

Do you perhaps means a bit like Rayman? Where his hands and feet are floating? If that is the case, someone correct me if I am wrong but you could create the pelvis, spine and chest as normal then add floating bones which are parented to the pelvis and chest? Or just create the full skeleton as normal with IK/FK legs and arms then you only have to skin the geometry to the hand and foot bones, that way you still have some "Realistic" ranges of movement.

entropia

@Eric Chadwick  I'm using max (well, used once for rigging). I'd rather not post picture of model itself for now. But generally in crude terms it silhouette looks like that (sorry for total uglyness, I don't really have time to draw it nicely, so it's just blockout). I want from the state on the left go to state on right an vice versa. 
@Hito yeah, something like limbs of tortoise just more dynamic.  Thank you very much for suggestion - I hope I'll manage to stuck limbs into body, 'cause the body is kinda thin, and arms rather long.
@Rmunday no, not at all like Rayman (at least not as far as I'm aware of). But thanks for info, it may come handy for me later

Hito

yeah standard T-Pose for sure. You'll get stretched texture in the extended arms if you model them retracted, plus it'll be much more difficult working with the mesh if the arms are inside the body when you model and unwrap, since you'll have quite a lot of edges packed into tight space.