To get this section rolling again, I wrote this SIMPLE script just now...
It just performs the initial first steps of starting the process of creating a simple instanced-poly-sphere-based modeling method.


/*START SCRIPT
'' (C) 2002 Izzy of Ragecgi.com
''
'' TITLE: "RagePolyChar.mel"
''
'' What it does:
'' Creates a start for a simple poly sphere character process.
''
'' USAGE:
'' Source the script from the script editor, then type:
'' "RagePolyChar" into the command line, and if you want,
'' select that text, and MiddleMouseDrag it to your chosen shelf
'' to make a shelf button to use it anytime:)
''
'' How it works:
'' It creates a basic poly sphere, then delete's half of it.
'' Then I instance the other half.
'' The script then turns on smoothShaded & Xray made for your perspective viewport,
'' it selects the original half, and sets the selection mask to
'' face component selection mode, and zooms in on it.
''
''
*/
global proc RagePolyChar()
{
//create a new instanced half poly sphere by Izzy as a mel study
polySphere -r 1 -sx 8 -sy 10 -ax 0 1 0 -tx 1 -ch 1;
// Result: pSphere1 polySphere1 //
select -r pSphere1.f[1:4] pSphere1.f[9:12] pSphere1.f[17:20] pSphere1.f[25:28] pSphere1.f[33:36] pSphere1.f[41:44] pSphere1.f[49:52] pSphere1.f[57:60] pSphere1.f[65:68] pSphere1.f[73:76] ;
delete;
//select the sphere half and instance it in negitaveX
select -r pSphere1 ;
instance; scale -r -1 1 1;
// Result: pSphere2 //
//make viewport Xray mode
modelEditor -edit -displayAppearance smoothShaded -activeOnly false modelPanel4;
modelEditor -e -xray 1 modelPanel4;
select -cl ;
select -r pSphere1 ;
//change the original sphere to face selection mode and zoom into it.
changeSelectMode -component;
hilite pSphere1 ;
autoUpdateAttrEd;
updateSelectionModeIcons;
setComponentPickMask "Facet" true;
updateObjectSelectionMasks;
updateComponentSelectionMasks;
FrameSelected;
fitPanel -selected;
}
//END SCRIPT

Download it here: