This is where it all begins.
First off i start by importing front and side reference images. While some may prefer the X type of placement where they intersect or the box type where its close together i prefer to have space to work in after all there just a GUIDE to get it close nothing more. Artist imagination is #1 that and a base understanding of anatomy. Eitherway first thing to do is to set the project files using default names and then import your references i actually have SOME 3d references that i can import for when creating a character which is helpful and with practice you will eventually amass a nice collection of images and 3d object to help you along the way.
Here u can see i did a rough block out and i rotated the arms a bit. This is where anatomy comes into play good deformation ie animation depends on polygon placement by rotating the forearms My block out already starts to follow the base muscle groups at this stage its just adding loops and making sure each major area follows the proper muscle forms and remember LESS is more adding loops and more polygons is easy but removing loops and excess polygons is far harder so look hard at your model and ask yourself if u really need that extra edgeloop. A good way to go about it is using a shiloutte as if it looks good solid black then your set as most real detail comes from normal mapping. To wrap up remember just because u can subdivide and make it smoother dosent mean you should.
Here we have my finished mesh if you look closely you will see in the bottom image that my edgeloops follow all major muscles and bones also when preparing a mesh for sculpting triangles are EVIL always keep your mesh quad untill just before its added to a game or rendered, because triangles cause issues when sculpting do to how applications subdivide a mesh tri's cause pinching and thats bad eitherway u can see that my character mesh dosent even really resemble the reference images but thats the point.
the idea is to get the proportions right then worry about it looking right.
Here we have the automatic uv mapping as done by maya i recommend selecting regions and manually uv mapping the mesh as it gives a much better result especially when rendering normal maps
Here is my mesh as scene in 3rd ss above. this is my uv map manually edited so as to give 0 stretching its hard to accomplish but its worth it because stretching of textures looks nasty and the whole point is to make something look good
