I’ve been modeling a character using this tutorial series, which I am finding very helpful. In most cases, he’s been really good at explaining why he does things the way he does, and I’ve been able to apply the concepts to parts of the model where I want it to look different from his. So far, so good.
However, in the part about adding the hands, when he reattaches the hand to the rest of the mesh, he grabs the loop at the wrist end of the arm and twists it, using proportional editing. The result looks something like this (my model) - notice how the green face loop on the arm twists around from the near side of the elbow to the far side of the wrist:
As I understand it, because it more closely mimics how the actual muscles of a human arm are, which improves deformation. When the hand is in that position the muscles flow more or less like that, but “untwist” when it rotates. The forearm bones also kind of do that.
What @G_De said.
Plus from a rigging point of view. Having the hand be more horizontal, rather than the untwisted ‘natural’ position, makes it easier to place and align the bones for the fingers.
Aaahh ok, so if we were modeling with the thumb pointing up, we wouldn’t twist those loops, because in that position the bones and muscles in a real arm would lie straight. Thank you, both of you, that makes sense.
