strappity strapping straps (modelling query)

[monsto]

i'm working on clothing that will have a strap with buckle circling a leg. I wanted the strap to appear to compress the flesh, so there's an indentation... you know, like it's a little too tight.

 

I thought the best way to do this would be to create 2 new rows of vertices at the point on the leg that i wanted. then those poly's between the verts would be the strap.

 

couple questions:

1) it's a bad idea to edit the base bodymesh at the sublevel, so i figure if i clone the leg and get the orig leg out of the way, i can do what i want with the clone. how would i go about 'removing' the original leg?

 

2) if i edit the vertices in the leg, won't that wreck the texture map? is there a way to do this so that i can use the default base body texture on a replacement leg?

[theru]

for for spline editing u can magnify it to the mesh to get the body shape then use loft or use ribbon, or even do to spline connect em then add surface modifier, theres another modifier available to dont rem the name thought :/

 

and its better to to use stand alone mesh if something goes wrong dont edit direcly on the body if u dont plan to make it a tight body suit