I was bored lately so I've been putting together some low-poly 3D models lately. When I say low poly, I mean really low poly; I'm trying to make models with less than 500 triangles. However, I also want these models to be useable in skeletal animation (character models, that is). I'm just having trouble figuring out how to model the joints. Here's a robot for instance: Perspective Front Side I haven't created the elbows, knees, thighs/hips, or shoulders because I'm unsure what structure they should have. I could make the elbows look like this, where I can see how the arm can bend up or down, but I'm unsure how well it would handle "wrist" turning. I could make the forearm and the upper arm separate entities, which would make sense for the robot, that won't help when I want to create "organic" characters that I'd definately want as a single mesh. The fact that my modeller doesn't have an animation tool also makes things harder to test (it's Wings 3D). :p

You could simply have them (the body segments) overlap. Low poly's would probably be used at a distance where you probably wont see much detail of any joint.

There should be standard skeleton patterns somewhere online. Years ago I did some with only 22 separate body parts (human figures) and they were adaquate at a distance (at least for what I was doing).

I thought about just having the joints overlap too. Thanks.

I'm not sure I'm just going to have the models seen at a distance though. If I put these models in a game, I'm envisioning it taking place in some kind of "cyber world" like Darwinia. So, I'd keep the models low-poly, even up close, because (a) I'm interested in the art style and (b) I'm not that great a modeller. :P