When it comes to sculpting hands, AnimSchool Instructor Charles Ellison has refined his method after years and years of practice.

We can see his superb work in some of his latest published work for Jacob in Netflix Animation’s “The Sea Beast”. 

More images available at Charle’s Artstation Portfolio
 

Charles emphasizes the importance of having good reference at hand before starting your model.

Many times during his lectures, Charles references the book “Anatomy for Sculptors” by Uldis Zarins. Many sections of the book can be found in their sample online.
But if all else fails, you can always use your own hands to help guide you in this process. 

Just like the human finger print, every hand is unique and has individual characteristics. But fundamental forms and shapes persist. 



Notice the way your hand forms a wedge where it meets the fingers. Notice the “V” shape present within the 3 sections that form your finger. Notice how the ring finger and the ring finger are relatively the same size. All these details and more are fundamental to recreating a human hand in 3D space. 






Charles shows us the importance of starting simple, getting the shapes and forms correct and adding more definition as you go. This method allows beginners to successfully sculpt a hand from scratch. 


As part of the class, Intermediate Modeling/ZBrush, Charles shows students how to create a hand in Zbrush from scratch. Starting from a simple palm and ending to all 5 fingers, please enjoy this condensed clip of his lecture on hands.




At AnimSchool, we teach students who want to make 3D characters move and act. Our instructors are professionals at film and game animation studios like Dreamworks, Pixar, Sony Pictures, Blizzard & Disney. ⁠

Our alumni currently enjoy a 92% placement in the industry within 6 months of graduating.

Start your animation journey in our accredited online animation program at animschool.edu (ACCSC)⁠