Polygon Modeling Review - Extrusion
the Extrude tool is a great way to model things with polygons. it's particularly good for objects that branch or bifurcate, like hands or trees. Start with any polygon primitive, like a cube. To select a face to extrude, go into component mode (F8, or R-Click on the object, choose "Faces"). Select a face. Go to Edit Polygons->Extrude Face.
the extrude manipulator has handles for moving, scaling, and rotation. grab the arrow to pull the extruded face out. Repeat the extrusion command to keep pulling out more faces; rotate and scale each one as you go to adjust the size and orientation of the extrusion branch.
Once you have the extrusion completed, you may want to smooth it out. Select all the faces of the branch, and go to Polygons->Smooth to smooth them.
(c) Ben Chang