The Blender hand and the final decisions
A realistic hand from Human Base Meshes, a rig that deforms cleanly and the decisions on pose and interaction.
Before getting to the final hand I tried the base mesh of the Human Base Meshes hand, from Blender. It deformed well, but I didn't like the fingers.
The one that stayed is the hand and forearm of the realistic male body from the same pack, which is scan-based and CC0. I cut it out of the body and simplified it from 60,000 to about 15,000 vertices. It is all quads, with knuckles, tendons and veins, and with the same rig scripts it now deforms cleanly. To stop the wrist from showing steps when it bends, the weight transition between forearm and hand became gradual across the whole mesh, and the weight smoothing adapts to the density.
The final decisions:
- Pose: the wrist flexed to 65°, so the hand falls toward the glass. The fingers go in a cascade and the last phalanx barely bends, as in a hand at rest.
- Pinky tied to the ring finger: they share tendons, so it copies 70% of its movement and stays slightly more bent.
- Aim only up close: the hand turns toward the mouse when it is near the wrist, with per-axis limits so the mesh does not deform. The forearm turn is smoothed and does not jump when the mouse passes behind the arm.
- Reach: over the index fingertip, the fingers stretch out in a cascade, the index more than the rest.
- Dropped: a pinch in which the index and thumb grabbed the mouse. It did not look natural.