Firstly I hide the model of me so far as that will get in the way, as much as we will be using it to blend into we can tweak it later if need be. At this point all I want to do is focus on the tech arm though, so it's outta' there.

Starting with a new plane and using the front to make the polys, we then go into the 3rd axis once more. I'm going to start from the torso piece and then head out from there.

Once again I have decided to move this into the 3rd plain sooner than later so I can get a feel for the look of the thing as I go along. I have done so here just to get a bit of depth and substance. I also added the collar. I have to decide whether I will map or model the see through elements of the collar.

Once I move the vertices I have made to a suitable position I grab the edges of the mesh and shift / move them back. This is a good example of using elements to save polys as I will be joining the vertices at the rear of this new edge to the back of the mesh. The end result being the tech arm overlaps the main character, without needed to join up the two (and thus adding countless polys to do so). The red area displays the original poly set. Some of the polys had to be re-sorted in order to get the direction of the triangles correct however.

Here I have added the area under the main chest area, this isn't in my front reference, but I noticed it in my original (concept) sketch which I still have next to me for generel reference. As I drew it a a slight angle it gives you a better idea as to certain aspects, such as how the torso moves around the curvature of my torso.

This is where things get tricky as I have no real reference as to how this arm is really attached to the torso. A knowledge of mechanical objects would be REALLY handy here, but that's not entirely my thing so I'm going to make it up. THe other thing is this arm is built in a world based on magic, so I get to have a bit of creative leeway here :)

Either way, I still need to think on it to make sure it's believable. Even in an unbelievable world you have to consider the physical attributes of that world otherwise it just won't sit right with your audience. Due to the complexity of the arm, I'm going to draw up some plans for it and use it as side reference (as I still have size reference from the original sketch)

OK, so to start off with we have to look into the parts that I want to have in appearance...and then compare it to what an arm is actually meant to do.

I also noted that the mana canisters need to actually connect to my character someway, otherwise they wouldn't work. Taking this in tow I draw up the very basic shapes of the shoulder area so I know what elements I need to make function.

The first image is what I have come up with.The cylinder coming from the main torso rotates and the 'ball' element has two hemispheres that rotate up and down. Hopefully this will suit my character. As it is a very important element for my character to function properly (especially for the high poly version), I'll make a quick model of it in 3d.

And here you go, as you can see the model works quite fine as a basis so I'll stick to it. Why did I go to so much effort on this one shoulder you may ask? Well, it's more 'cos I can' than anything else, but I really DO need to consider these things for this particular character as he will be the cornerstone of a lot of things I do in the future. Might as well do it properly here.

Now, back to the creation process.

Back to the torso plate I have worked on finishing the front half of it off. Depending on the end poly count I would like to actually have the dip into the torso to accomodate the shoulder joint. Otherwise I will have to make it a texture and overlap the two. Here I added and cleaned up the side area a bit.

Which leads me to the next issue. The back. I have no real reference for what I want the back to look like. SO I'm going to have to draw that too.

Here is the sketch I have done to base the back of my character off. Things to note : Cables are cool (although hell to do in low poly environments), the ying yang symbol in the middle represents something that corresponds to the world he is in, so there is reason showing it's head once more.

Personally I don't know if this will be the final back, it could do with some work I think, but I'll see it in 3D before I pass final judgement. Once again, this is only rough reference. I'm not even going to put it into max to use it as actual reference. Although that's just my preference.

By using both our model and our new sketch for reference we can get a good idea as to how it all comes about. Unhide your character and tweak as you need to in order to line up the vertices as you see fit. In my case I had to move the area under the arm out a bit to suit the chest area, and then move the bottom of the collar area (and respective vertices around that) to the middle. Other than that it was good to go.

I'm not worried about the arm as such as soon it won't be there :) It's just the main torso/chest area and top of the shoulder we need to use as a base.

By shift / moving the areas around the bottom of the chest and the shoulder I can start making some polys in order to build the rest of the back area.

If you also look closely you will note I have joined a lot of the vertices at the bottom that go through the body tho the rear. As the area between the front and the main character is small, there can be slight deviation of direction (not straight back) but it's good to get close so try and line them up as well as you can. Seeing as you can't see this area you don't need the extra information and this saves a lot of polys.

Once again by using Shift / move edges I have created the edges of the back area that I can now continue to fill in. I find this a good way to work as it gives you an opportunity to work with the easy areas and the areas that you can easily assume, and then get to the details after that. It also gives you an idea of the volume that needs to be created.

From here I can continue and add the details as I go along, Or we can add the basic mass of the back, and then add the details from there. I'll do the latter, as it will give us an opportunity to use some of the other tools available to us within the modify panel.

So It's a bit of a jump, but if you select the image to the right you'll have all four views to help you out as a visual guide as to what I created. As you can see in comparison to the last step, I have moved the back in towards the body somewhat. It was getting too big otherwise.

Basically what I did was create one side of the 'backpack' by using the centre back as the building blocks and then flipped it over to sort the other side out. Then I filled out the remaining areas so that it looks like it does now. Things to note were the reference to following the curve of the original character, as tit is moulded around him initially, and also the fact that I have the shoulder and pad to consider (hence the reason I brought the back in significantly).

And at 2948 polys so far, we are definitelly within reach of a good poly count.