AbstractWe present a new approach to realistic hand modeling and deformation with real‐time performance. We model the underlying shape of a human hand by means of sweeps which follow a simplified skeleton. The resulting swept surfaces are blended, and an auxiliary surface is then bound to the swept representation in the palm region. In the areas of this palm‐control surface where bulges occur in certain poses of a real hand, the vertices are given their own trajectories, so that the palm forms realistic shapes as the joints bend. Palm lines can also be modeled as valleys in the skin by sketching them on a displacement map on the palm‐control surface, and activitating them when appropriate joint movements take place. Self‐intersections and collisions are detected using geometric primitives that are automatically generated from, and deform with, the sweeps and palm surface. Our algorithm runs in real time, and the naturalism of its results are demonstrated by comparative images of modeled and real hands, including several challenging poses. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.