New 3ds user needs help

[Gruve]

Hey everybody. I'm brand new to this website and 3ds max both. I have 3ds max 8 and am just learning how to use it. I have gone through a tutorial book, only to find that it only covered the topmost molecule of the tip of the iceberg. I'm trying to follow a tutorial about modeling a female body: http://www.3dm3.com/tutorials/female_body/ and have run into a problem early on that I can't seem to figure out. I'm trying to move vertices around and all of the sudden, they seem to be connected to each other. When I select a vertex, the edges around it become colored in a range of colors, as if to tell me how sensitive they are to the movement of the vertex I have selected. When I then try to move the single vertex, the ones around it move as well. I simply wish to move a single vertex completely independantly. I have attached an imaged I grabbed from the view, if that helps. Any help is appreciated. Thank you.

[minimus]

Welcome to 3dm. i think i understand your problem. it's easy to fix. the box/dropdown were you pick verticles edges and all that stuff. pick one of them and go a bitt down on the list. the you find a littel box. named somthing like "ignore back" or somthing klik on that. and wolla!! problem solved.

[Real3d v.2]

if it is showing coloured vertices along the selected one, you must have selected the 'Use Soft Selection' check box under the Mesh/poly options in the Modifier panel, hope this solves the problem! and its not related with Ignora Backfacing! :p

[Gruve]

Soft selection it was. Thanks so much :yaya: . I probably hit a hot key or something to turn it on accidently. Here's another general question that I've been wondering about: For those of you that are really good at modeling people, how did you come to know human physiology so well? Or do you have images that you consult when modeling the human form?

[Gruve]

Ok, so I made a crappy little robot and have rendered it a few times (which takes forever I might add. Brand new computer, what's that all about?). Now when I try to render it though, it says that the feet of the robot don't have any map coordinates and may not render correctly. Any ideas?

[Real3d v.2]

Blue Prints are your Best Friend if you wanna do accurate modelling of Human Body! :togo:

If you made the feet seperatly, add UVW Map modifier then apply textures!
can also be done on single mesh, select those polygons first though!

[Gruve]

Thanks again. Just to warn you, I have an unlimited supply of questions. I will, however stick to those that I can't seem to figure out any other way than to ask here. So here's the next one: I gave my robot the classic glass spherical type "eye" in the front of his head. I found a glass material on the internet and stuck it in there, and it actually worked. In addition I stuck a direct light inside the sphere and linked it to the sphere so the target of light will move when his head moves. That works fine, but then I decided it would be cool if the eye also gave off the classic glow. Materials don't really make any sense to me yet so I can't for the life of me figure out how to do this.

[Gruve]

When you want to make a character with clothing, so you make the character first, and then cloth it? If so how? Or do you just model the clothing as part of the character?