Modeling Practice Here:

danpants

Been really wanting to practice more on my modeling skills since that is my weakest area and the most important. I am using Maya as the modeling software. And an anatomy book [ame=http://www.amazon.com/Anatomy-Artist-Sarah-Simblet/dp/078948045X/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1210909542&sr=8-1]Anatomy For The Artist[/ame] for reference.

Goals: To eventually have a cleaner base mesh. Learn my own technique of modeling. And model faster in less time.

Practice Hands: C&C welcomed.

BrodyB

I'm pretty green myself, and I reference Atlas of Human Anatomy for the Artist by Stephen Rogers Peck. A lot of great reference images in that book, and incidentally the one my school uses.

For the hand (or any part of the body for that matter), I find it helpful to look at the parts in terms of ratios. For example, the palm half of the hand is a little bit taller than the length of the middle finger. Also, the index and ring fingers are the same length (usually). Lastly, the tip of the pinky reaches the last joint of the ring finger.

That being said:
- The pinky is a tad too long.
- The back of the hand looks a bit flat. Round it out a bit more.
- I'd remove the two loops at the base of all four of the main fingers as they don't make any functional sense.
- Remove the whole extra edge loop splitting through the pinky.

Otherwise, good start.

Jaco

Good tips BrodyB.
The thumb also starts too far forward, and it looks a bit small. Also the hand isn't flat, the thumb is at an angle to the rest of the fingers/the palm. I'd recommend modeling at least a bit of the forearm as well.
Keep it up!

Wilex

Hi Dan,

Well first off you don't need to show us two hands you can just model and show us progress on one. If you need two you can always duplicate and mirror one.

As for your hands the basic shape is there but the proportions and positioning are off. You need to bring the thumb down its riding up too high on your index finger. Look at how the thumb connects to your hand the first joint is close to the wrist this joint allows you to push your thumb in across your hand. Like BrodyBmentioned the tip of the pinky reaches the last joint of the ring finger. The wrist also feels a bit wide try bringing that in. The pinky knuckle also feels a bit wide as well.

Definitely pull out those edge loops BrodyB mentioned for the time being and really nail the shape of the hand with as little poly's as possible then slowly add in more to round out the fingers and get better definition. Keep in mind you'll need enough for proper deformation when animating.

Michael Knubben

Someone mentioned that the hand isn't a flat plane, and that the thumb is at an angle to the rest, but in addition to that, you should remember that the palm and fingers themselves follow a curve as well. And if you can get the hand into a natural pose that helps to spot errors as well.
Also, what's the purpose of this hand? Is it a basemesh for Zbrush, or a basemesh to create a lowpoly ingame model out of? The former would explain the uniform squares, but then I'd go further than that in simplifying it, and leave out most detail.

Joao Sapiro

i dont think you have even looked at hand references , try to put your hand in that position and when you break it you will know heheh , seriously , you have two hands, even if it is a basemesh for zbrush flat hands arent very good :S
give it a more relaxed pose, this one doesnt benefit you in nothing.

Jeremy Lindstrom

I model and I know several people model hands (well fingers at least) as a flat plane for easier rigging no?

Wilex

It's not really that big of a deal for rigging, well in maya at least. All you have to do is draw your joint chains twice once to position it how you want and then the second time you just snap it on top of the one you just posed as you draw it so your rotations are zero'd out.

Well i didnt realize that the relaxed pose was the perfered. If thats the case then Dan you should take a photo or two of your hand. Just hold your arm up and relax all the muscles in your hand and thats the pose you're going for.

Mark Dygert

If you're modeling for rigging, then a relaxed pose with the fingers close together can be hell as the envelopes will overlap like crazy. It can also be hard to align the bones in the proper position.

Fingers fanned out, is pretty nice but looks totally unnatural and hard to get a good idea of what the hand actually looks like when modeling. But really any competent rigger will be able to work easily with whatever pose you give them.

If this is a low poly hand, you need to think about the knuckle joints. At times I use the method Ancient Pig outlines in his tutorial. It works really well for fingers.
http://www.pig-brain.com/tut02/tut02_02.htm

I think you should rig up the hands, and create some animations with them, try closing the hand, make a fist, point each finger. Really put them through their paces and see where they fall apart and then work on solving those problems.

Rhinokey

you fingers are all pointing straight.. look at your hand and spread your fingers,, they fan out, the middle finger point straight ahead and the others pointing away from it/

Minimoose

i'd set up a plane to put a reference on. and your model is very boxy, you want smoother more organic shapes in hands. what i do for a hand is start of by creating a 6 sided cylinder and extruding edges as i go. might be something to try out for urself.

Mark Dygert

To expand on what Mojokey mentioned...

- Check out some skeletal ref
- Note where the joints line up and their relationship to each other.
- Notice that the middle finger joints stick other farther then the others, and that the pinky and ring fingers are set farther back into the hand.
- Notice as you spread the fingers out they fan out, and when they point forward, they touch.
- The gap you have between the fingers is too much, close that distance, and rotate the fingers so the fan, not spread out.

danpants

Hey,

Thanks for the many replies and much appreciated help.

BrodyB: I removed the extra loop, made the pinky smaller, and some other adjustments still need to work more on the back of the hand.

Jaco: Yeah, I added more of the hand, moved the thumb back at an angle.

Wilex: Instead of one hand now I put three , but at different angles, adjusted the pinky and tightened the wrist, adjusted the thumb at an angle. Need to add more geometry to get a smoother model for rigging. Yeah I looked at my relaxed hand and it was a better reference than an image since its all ready in 3D.

MightyPea: I did notice the palm also follows a curve so I adjusted but may need to tweak it some more, yes a natural pose does seem to be the best way to model it, and no this is not a Z brush base model its just practice for me. I want to focus more on Maya instead of jumping to Z Brush with a bad basemesh.

Johny: yes, believe or not I am actually looking at reference, but since my modeling has not been my strong skill, I want to get better so thats why you see what you see so far. This could be a basemesh for Z Brush, but right now I am trying to model a nice basemesh in Maya. Since the hands are the hardest for me to model I chose to model those first. I did use my hand as rest pose and found that it is a great reference and starting point.

Dekard: I believe that for low poly modeling it won't make a difference. But at higher res it does, it can't be boxy.

Vig: Thanks Vig for the animated image you posted it helps a lot. And the link to pigbrain, now I don't have to look for it. I fanned the hands and now that you mention it I do want to rig it now. Checked the skeletal ref. and going to adjust the joints further plus the knuckles as well. And pigbrain deformation.

Rhinokey: yeah I adjusted the fingers and made it more of a relaxed pose for a more realistic feel compared to a straight out approach.

Minimoose: Thanks I have tried that approach. I am looking for any new methods as well.

Thanks for your help, hope I got everyone.


Here is an update:

BrodyB

That's looking a heck of a lot better!

One major thing I want to point out though is that the thumb doesn't bend that way. Again, look at your own hand and flex your thumb to see its axis of motion.