Modelling hands

The next stage to my character was creating the hands, I decided the best way to approach this was to watch some videos and try and understand the process of modelling the hand, I also looked at the geometry of the hand, and the bone structure to get some ides of where the bones run and the position of the joints.

I found a series of images when I researched 'Hand topology' in Google images, and this helped me understand the structure of the hand.

I then followed a YouTube tutorial series which helped me model my own hand, the tutorial took a good couple of hours and it was quite a hard tutorial to follow, however I am extremely pleased with the outcome and I would go as far to say it is one of the best models I have created, even without the fine details of the hand such as veins and creases I feel that the outcome is very realistic, the shape is all in tact and follows the shape of a real hand.

To create the hand I print screened a reference image from the tutorial I was following and used this to help with the geometry, I then created a box and moved the vertices to correspond with the reference image and video, and I then began using extrusions to create the shape, I also used a technique which I have learnt this year quite a lot which involves me selecting a line and using a 'ring' then using the 'connect tool' which adds another line along the sequence of lines I am manipulating, this is also a great reference to see whether a model has correct geometry because the connect will only work if the geometry is in the right places.

I then spent a lot of time moving and pulling vertices on the box to try and eliminate the box shape and try give it a more rounded shape, this helped a lot when applying a smooth as it provided a more natural looking hand, the tutorial suggested using Turbo Smooth, however I believe that the NURMS smooth is better and have been using that throughout my other models, so decided to stick with it. 

For modelling the fingers I created a cylinder and added some more geometry to give the finger definition such as knuckles, it was important that the amount of sides were the same as the amount of vertices on the palm of the hand, so that when it came to welding the finger to the hand it would align easier. I then deleted the end of each cylinder as one end would be attached to the hand, and the other end I needed to create the nail bed and nail, I did this by creating a cylinder and cutting in half, I then attached this using target weld to the end of the finger and from here I could sculpt the nail, for the nail bed I simply extruded the 4 polys downwards three times, and then extruded the 3 lines it created to  create the cuticle of the finger, I then selected the polys again and extruded them upwards and then out to create the nail.

I then copied the completed finger 4 times, for the fingers and the thumb, scaling them corresponding to each finger, and for the thumb scaling it significantly, rotating it and changing the shape. The final step was to attach each finger and the thumb to the hand, and I did this simply by using the target weld, this was quite an easy task as I had an equal amount of vertices to attach to. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksVUhWUcXN0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qn8pwcGav7A

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOQD-csErOk