hand (3D Studio MAX 4) June 2001

This is the best hand I've produced using the box modelling technique. Making a hand is usually approached by starting with a primitive box converted to an editable mesh and the fingers and thumb are extruded, my previous attempts using this approach had a tendency to result in a hand that looked like it was wearing a glove, even with the fingernails and knuckles added, due to the overall profile. With many hours of tweaking the model - a convincing hand can be produced.

The most characteristic features of a hand are the fingers and this part of the anatomy has the most detail which will give it a realistic look. Drawing a hand is a common exercise given to art students followed by drawing different types of hands, female, male, young, old, strong, gentil, hard working etc. there are so many observations to make that it is a good exercise and not as easy as one initially thinks. Therefore starting with one finger and getting the profile and details right at that point, I found, will lead to producing a good model of a hand.

For the hand models that I have seen, most 3D artists used their own hand as the basis for their model and mine is no different.