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1. Go to Project->New Go to File-> new ->model or in the Project Work Space doubleclick on Objects or right click Objects and select New ->Model
2.On the File bar go to Tools-> Options. A dialog box pops up. Under the modeling tab change the lathe cross sections to 8 because we're making a light patch count model. (If you lathe in multiples of 4 you always get things symmetrical around the x and z axis.)
3. Hit A on the keyboard. Click to place a dot (but call it a CP (Control Point)). Draw a line (but call it a Spline) similar to this one. We're going to lathe this (spin it around the green line) and make it into our body. In the upper bit, around where the letter A is drawn , we'll attach arms, so you might want to put some extra cp's in. Right click when you are finished. If you want to add more cp's after you've right clicked you can hit shift+A then click on the spline, or you can click anywhere on the spline and hit Y on the keyboard. When you are satisfied click anywhere on the spline and hit L on the keyboard (or find the lathe button in the modeling panel). The spline should spin around the green line leaving 8 cross sections. Hit T and drag anywhere in the window to spin around and check. Hit 2 in the numpad to jump back to front view. (Numpad 0=below, Numpad 1=from camera (doesn't apply right now) Numpad 2=front,Numpad 3=from a light (also not currently applicable) Numpad 4=left, Numpad5=top, Numpad 6=right, Numpad 7=from last time you spun around, Numpad 8=from the back)
4. Always model from a multiple views. Instead of having 2 modeling windows open I use the numpad hotkey's to jump around and check, thereby allowing me to have the biggest screen workspace. You could go to Window->New Window and then ->tile vertically to have 2 windows open at once. Select the model (either click and drag which will pull a selecting box around it, or click anywhere on it and hit / on the keyboard) Hit S to scale it (or find the scale button) Go to a side view and click drag the circled part towards the middle, this should make it skinnier from the side but look untouched from the front.
5.Tweak the cp's so they are more similar to the shape of a rib cage and pelvis. Later when we start rigging this, the splines can act hard like bone. To adjust cp's, from a side view click drag around the one you want and release. Then click drag on the yellow selection box that appeared around the cp. If you do this from the side you will move both sides at once. (Another way to affect symmetrical cp's is to use the Mirror mode button, but I think you need to scale your model pretty large to be able to)
	6. Draw a new spline along the side of the body (see step 3 for help drawing a spline) Generally the elbow falls around the bottom of the rib cage. I like my elbow with just 2 rings, but a lot of people like to have a middle ring as well.
	7. Select your arm spline and move it about 1/2 an arms thickness from the green line. (Select the arm just like selecting the body to scale in step 4, move it just like moving cp's in step 5) Open the options box (like step 2) and change the lathe cross section number to 6.
	8. Lathe it (hotkey L) grab the new arm move it into place by the body and rotate it (hotkey R) to horizontal.
	9. Spin around some (hotkey T) and click on one of the cp's at the top of the body. Make sure the green highlight goes around the ring and not down the body (if it's going the wrong way hit Tab on the keyboard to cycle through the splines running through the cp) when you have it selected going along the ring hit , (the comma) to select the whole ring. Hit E twice to get a neck going.
	10.Select 1/2 the body (but not the center line) hit DELETE. We're going to attach the arm and leg to the body, and the less splines around to confuse us the better. Besides when A:M flips a copy over for us it will be exactly symmetrical.
	11.Jump to top view (numpad5), you see hitting delete just deleted the cp's but didn't break the splines. Click on each spline piece and hit k to break it (or look for the break spline button). You should finish with it flat on one side. (Watch out for that last bit where the arrow is, it's easy to miss.) Sometimes A:M won't break a spline, if your sure you've selected it and it doesn't respond, hit DELETE and you might delete the part of the cp that is connecting, or you might delete the whole cp and have to hit CTRL+Z to undo it.
	12. Zoom out (Z and drag) select the arm, copy (ctrl + C) and paste (ctrl + V) rotate the new arm to vertical and move it down to below the body. Cut to side view (numpad 6) and line it up with the center line of the body. It's our new leg.
	13. Back to front view select just the waist area and top of the leg. Hit H to hide everything else.
	14. From the front view (numpad 2) click on the furthest out spline on the body. (If you hit T and click drag you will spin around and see that this is the spline we lined up with earlier)
	15. Hit Y 2 times, this will add 2 new cp's to this spline. Click on the spline between them, and hit K to break the spline. It should look like the bottom half of the picture now.
16. Grab one of those floating cp's and drag it over one of the cp's on the leg ring, RIGHT CLICK. This melds the 2 cp's into 1. Do it for the bottom also.
17. Spin your view a little (hit T and drag) so you can see the difference between front and back. This might be easier in shaded mode (keyboard 10) We're going to draw a spline continuing the leg spline across the belly. Hit A, click on the front center spline, click on the next spline, lastly click on the front leg ring cp, ending your spline. Do the same thing from the back.
18. You should look like this (this is a view from the side and below) those 2 holes are because there are 5 cp's instead of 4. Select the 5 offending cp's and hit the "Make 5 point patch" button. If nothing happens deselect and try again. Do this with both holes.
19. From even more below you find 2 more 5 point holes, and also the center ring from when we lathed the body. You could 5 point patch these, but there's a better solution.
20. Break the splines like you did before.

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