Thinking Outside the Box:
Exercise

By Paul "Villam" Steed

Now things start to move pretty fast. We split the difference on the bottom edge of the claw and merge the vertex at the upper end of the tendon (mixed cross-sections) making sure we turn the bottom edge of the tendon for clarity and neatness.

Then we move the outer edge vertices of the main arm object to give the top and bottom an edge suggesting roundness (diamonds are better…). Merge some vertices at the top of the main arm and go ahead and insert a vertex by dividing an edge at either side of the base of the main arm and pull them out to give it a 'turkey leg' look. Checking out the curve angle of the bottom of the main arm we need to merge some vertices by splitting the difference in two places. Then merge the vertex in the middle, underneath the 'neck' of the arm. Grab two vertices at the top of the end of the arm and pull them down and scale them out. Then go nuts at the end of the arm where the lower arm attaches and merge and turn and move and scale the hell out of that area. Here's a comparison of where we started and where we are at this point.

Now look closely at this blow-up of the end of the main arm object. It should be obvious how we can knock nine faces off this area. Which three techniques do we use?

(Continued on the next page)