Hand Tutorial  
Well, where to start.

I decided to focus on the main areas of hand building rather than build a step-by-step tutorial detailing every little thing you have to do and provide images that speak more than I ever could. I feel the main areas are: fingernails; knuckles; finger creases; and overall shape. This tutorial has been created assuming that the user will have a reasonable knowledge of 3D Studio Max.

Create a box 5x5x5 (1a).

Convert to Editable Mesh. Slice the front poly in the manner above adding an Edit Mesh after each operation and collapsing the stack – it prevents it becoming too unmanageable - although if your PC can handle it collapse at the end of your slicing to save time. Then Extrude the biggest (bottom) poly and the small thin poly right (1a) above it – this will create a gap between the both of them, the uppermost extruded poly being the nail itself and the big one at the bottom the front part of the finger.

Select the vertices as shown (2a - I`ve used two versions of the same thing as an example) and weld them. Should look like this (3a).

Fingernail Area:
An iteration of Meshsmooth will give you the basic shape. Before you move the vertices cut the fingertip down through the centre, from the top, with another slice modifier, to give you the vertices that will shape the front of the nail and finger. We will also Slice down through the finger from the side to help you shape the finger, but we`ll do that later.

Here in 4a you see that I`ve pulled the back of the nail vertices into the finger and together to narrow the nail at the back, and pulled the top three vertices over and down to meet the nail. Also I`ve pulled the top left vertices in to form the top of the finger just above the quick or where the nail emerges from the finger.

You can extrude the back of the finger as well if you like as I`ve done to start to form the poly`s for the first knuckle behind the nail.

Pull in the side vertices now, where the nail emerges, to form the sides of the quick around the nail. You can also perform the other main Slice now, down the centre from the side. This allows you to form the curves of the finger and obtain the general shape and that of the quick and under the front of the nail.

Extrude the two poly`s at the front of the nail and form them into a round shape, extending them over the front of the finger.

Pull up the front vertices – the fingertip – right up under the front

of the nail. Also pull up the side vertices – the middle of the nail – in order that you can form the sides of the quick properly, all the time applying Meshsmooth to check your progress.

 

Here is the nearly finished fingertip (5a). Just tweaking required in order to obtain the shape you want.

Knuckles:

Next extrude the back of the finger, once for the middle part of the finger, twice more to form the middle knuckle, another time for the upper part, and twice more again to form the main knuckle and webbing. These last two extrude at a slight angle as the main knuckle isn`t straight. See 6a.

Creases:
Slice the bottom poly`s and then pull out to form the under part of the finger. Move the vertices on the underside of each knuckle to form the creases, applying the Slice in order to create the three vertices either side you need to form the crease.

The picture at the bottom of the page (see note below and 7a) shows how you can add more detailed creases by applying Slice three or four times on the same poly (or poly`s) and pulling one vertice down and the other up.

Right (8a) shows a finished finger with full creases underneath and some basic creases on top of the middle knuckle, a light one also near the nail. Again all I`ve done is to Slice the poly`s on top two or three times in order to create the necessary vertices to push and pull, up and down.

Of course you can add detail and creases to your hearts content really. It`s up to you how much you want to put in.

Reference material is needed here to get the basic shape of the hand. I`ve drawn a quick and basic three fingered hand just to give myself something to work to (9a).

The main idea is to clone your finger, adjusting each one until it is the right shape. You can do this by adjusting the overall size or by moving the vertices.

The thumb takes more work to reshape but the process is the same.

Below (1b) is my hand taking shape. Notice it is only two fingers and thumb (it doesn`t matter how many fingers you want, the principle is the same) and you`ll notice that I`ve joined the two fingers and reshaped the thumb.

Building the palm can be done in two ways. You can join the thumb to the fingers and extrude backward (using extra poly`s extruded from lines and welding the touching vertices) or you can create a box shape and join the fingers to it. I`ve chosen the box shape as I can Slice it as I want it, there has to be enough vertices to be able to weld the fingers to it.

Lastly we come to the overall shape:

Using the Slice cut more of the palm box polys to match the finger vertices as shown in 2b. Notice that I`ve already welded the thumb on and in the process created several tri poly`s. In this case they don`t converge so stretching isn`t a problem, but it`s worth keeping an eye on.

Do the same underneath and on the sides, shaping as you go. The new vertices on top give us a good start to form the slight valleys formed by the tendons and bones of the fingers.

3b shows the finished hand with some creases between the thumb and finger and tendon lines showing, also wrist bone on the left side, tendon through the wrist and indentation behind the thumb.

You could do a lot more with time, Slicing and Extruding until your model is just perfect but this will do for starters.