The method to Box Modeling is done by working with polygons that already exist, as opposed to Polygon Modeling where you create polygons as you go. That having been said, Box Modeling is good (I find) for quick and easy creation of objects as long as you plan it out in advance. Also, this method is a great way to start out as it helps cover the basics which you will use down the road.

Lets begin!

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Fire up 3D Studio (preferably v5.0 and up) and start by creating a Sphere Object with 18 segments. Also make sure you have "Edged Faces" turned on in your Perspective viewport. You can do this by right clicking the word "perspective" in the top left corner of the box displaying everything in 3D. This is just to give you a better feel of where the lines are going, etc.

Now you have a sphere. Right now it's only a simple object, so it's time to turn it into something we can mess with. In this case an Editable Mesh. Click the Modify tab and then right click the the item called Sphere, and select Editable Mesh.

Now, you'll see a list of different selections: This will give us a list of different ways to mess around with the object.

Now what you need to do is turn on Vertex Editing (click Vertex), look at your Top viewport, and select about half of the Sphere and delete it. We're doing this so we only have to deal with one side for now, then later duplicate the other side and Weld it on. Slice it like so...

Now it's time to start digging in: Box modeling is all about Extruding, Bevels, Cutting and Welding edges and vertices. First (make sure you are still in vertex mode), lets start with the eyebrow ridge. Grab some of the top vertices of this soon-to-be head and start dragging them around with the Select and Move tool. You can use either the 3D view or a use all the other Side, Front and Top views. Later on you will feel more comfortable using just the 3D view.

Time to Cut an eye socket. Zoom in close to the area under the brow ridge and select "Edge" from the Editable Mesh drop down. With edge selected, look down a bit and scroll to the Edit Geometry section and select cut.

Now, where ever you point, you will create a cut point. Navigate to a vertex point in the Perspective viewport and Cut around it, clicking on the lines. Then right click to finish drawing the Cut line.

Now go back to Vertex mode from Edge mode, and delete the center vertex that you Cut around.

Now all you have to do is give the eye socket some depth. We can do this by selecting the four new surrounding edges (you guessed it, with Edge mode selected), and extruding them backwards into the head. Follow along...

Select all of the edges (you can do this by holding the CTRL key while clicking on the edges). Once they are selected, hold the SHIFT KEY and Drag the edges back with the Select and Move tool, then let go. I used the Top viewport for this, the Perspective viewport can get awkward sometimes.

Now, do it once more. Hold SHIFT and Click and drag the edges away. Every time you Shift and Drag away you create a new segment. This is known as Extruding.

Now it's time to seal off the back of the socket (being poked in the brain can't be fun). Go back to Vertex mode and select the Target button under the Welding section (right below where you last selected the Cut button).

This lets you select one vertex, click and drag on top of another one, and the bind together. This is a VERY helpful tool! Your job now is to select those back eye socket vertices and weld them together. Use the Perspective viewport for this one.

With the Extruding, Cutting and Welding tools, you can make just about anything. But there's one last basic tool to take advantage of - MeshSmooth.

As you've probably noticed by now, your model looks very blocky, even when you render it. There's a quick and easy way to toss in more vertices (in turn more curves) to make the model look more complex and therefore more lifelike. That means you don't always have to make a super complex model to make it look complex.

To add the MeshSmooth modifier, just go to the drop down titled Modifier List, and scroll down and select MeshSmooth.

MeshSmooth is now added! All you have to do now is increase the "smoothness level" by looking down and increasing the Iterations (not smoothness value). Usually 2.0 is a good. value. Just look at the difference!

Notice that you can toggle back and forth between the Editable Mesh (by clicking anything below it (Vertex, Polygon, etc)), make some changes and then click anything above it and have those changes applied to what you just did.

This is a good way to make changes your model, and then jump ahead to see what MeshSmooth will do to it.

Now take some time and get used to those tools and begin crafting out whatever kind of head you want to, I'll leave the creative part up to you. Apart from the Extrude tool, also use the Bevel tool, for things like cheek bones.

All you need to do is go into Polygon mode, select a poly section (or multiple sections while holding the control key), press the Bevel button and click and drag out, and let go. You'll notice the second you let go, you'll be able to bevel newly extruded vertices. Give it a try and then check out how MeshSmooth deals with it.

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Use these tools and take a few minutes to get comfortable with them, then start making that character! I've taken a bit less than 15 minutes using just those tools, and look what I came up with! Not bad for a Cave-Man, huh!? ... The picture, that is.

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Usually one of the final steps when making a face is to mirror it and then Weld together both sides via their vertices. This will create a perfectly symmetrical face, which can than be fine tuned and touched up upon.

To Mirror your model, first delete the MeshSmooth modifier in the list (also known as the Stack). Just right click and delete it.

Now, select Editable Mesh, and then look for the button called Mirror Selected Objects. It looks like this and can be found in your Command Panel.

You will be presented with a Dialogue Box and some choices. In this case, you should mirror the object on the X-Axis and set the mirror property to "Copy." This will make an exact replica of what is being mirrored.

Mirroring by reference (or instance) in this case will be EXACTLY like a mirror. It will make a mirrored object for you AND follow along as you make changes. So for example if I were to mirror our character's head by instance, and then make a change on the left side of the face, it would automatically happen on the other side, too. Mirroring by Instance and Reference are similar, but reference lets you have one object reflect changes upon many objects connected to it.

By now, you should have two separate faces. It's time to make the two objects into ONE first by grouping them, and then actually Welding them together. Select any side first, click the ATTACH button, and click on the other side to attach.

It's all just a matter of now going into Vertex mode and welding the head together with the same click-and-drag Welding method as before! But there's a quicker way of doing this, too!

Since you mirrored the head on the X-Axis, the vertices along the middle that you need to weld should be right on top of each other. If you select all of them from above and click Weld Selected, they should all automatically weld together if they are close enough to each other!

You might have to make sure that all vertices Welded properly. You might have moved the inside ones slightly, causing them to be mirrored slightly off of one another. You can either manually Weld these, or just bump up the Selected Weld distance (from the Default of 0.1).

Slap a MeshSmooth modifier on that bad boy and give it a render!

Not too bad for around half an hour of work, eh?!

If you have any questions, come discuss them on the message boards.

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