My Entry

[Ilidrake]

Here are the 3 poses I have done for Robcat's courses I am involved in. Just thought I'd toss'em out here to the masses, maybe get a little feedback and see what you guys think. They are just simple poses. Sitting, Leaning against a wall, and standing on one foot. How close or far did I get from the mark of showing "character"?

[John Bigboote]

I think all 3 deploy character... btw---GREAT character! (in the 1st shot, something about the angle of his left arm that is odd to me, the left leg is trying so hard to keep him balanced but the arm is not...)

[NancyGormezano]

How close or far did I get from the mark of showing "character"?

 

He's such a great character. Seems a wonderful character to work with.

 

In general, for me, I would push each pose more. I feel these poses are generic, and don't say enough about this particular character's state of mind, nor his personality.

 

From his stereotypic body type I might guess a variety of his personality traits, but I would more than likely be wrong. I would try to identify his state of mind, and personality type. Is he a goof? meek, milquetoast? Intellectual? neurotic, scaredy-pants?

 

I would for each pose, work on the facial expressions: eyelids, eyebrows, eye direction, mouth shapes, etc. He has the same facial expression in each pose (default?). I would give him asymmetrical facial expressions to augment and push the body poses, mood, character traits.

 

I would also make his fingers and hand poses more extreme, exaggerated.

 

In the first pose - if he is supposed to be off-balance, then I would push it further. For example, I would make it clear that he is caught mid struggle, desperate to not fall over. Or, if he's supposed to be balanced, then I would make it a funny extreme, eg - maybe a delicate and unlikely dainty pose (remember the "Perk" character pose - a past A:M mascot?), or maybe an extreme manly pose worthy of a body builder. In current pose, I would move his left hand, so as to not be tangenting his leg. I would also experiment with angling the model (or camera) so that the general orientation of the pose is not so straight on.

 

For the "thinker" pose - I would again try to make it clear his mood by exaggeration. As it is, I don't know if he's just being reflective, or staring at something on the floor. Is he about to lean over and pick it up? I would try to make it more obvious. Is he dejected? scheming? dazed? daydreaming?

 

For the leaning on wall. Is he trying to be cool? just thinking? It seems an odd pose to me. I can't ever remember seeing someone holding their head up while leaning on the wall like that. Maybe he's trying to be aggresive and block someone? I would try and make it more comical, exaggerated, more arc to the general body line from head to crossed leg.

 

I always have a hard time figuring out poses for my own characters, and because I don't ask myself the same kinds of questions and push it further: "what are they thinking, feeling? What's their personality? Where are they and what is the scene setup?" - I end up with very bland poses. So this was an interesting exercise for me to learn something that I need to do.

[robcat2075]

For the benefit of the commenters (whose comments are very much appreciated!) I'll paste the assignment as it was written so the the goal is not so mysterious.

 

Assignment:

 

Choose a fairly normal human-proportioned character. Knight will work well, but any reasonable biped should be OK. A character without puffy clothing like a dress. The face is not important. If you're in doubt, ask.

 

Pose your character in each of the following situations:

 

-sitting on a box

-leaning against a wall

-standing on one foot

 

No animation, we just want the pose. Pose the whole body, use as much of it as you can to make the pose look good.

 

A big goal of this class is to learn to show weight in our characters. Make it look like his weight is really on that box, make it look like he's really leaning on that wall, make it look like he's really standing on that foot.

 

It helps to do these things yourself, in a mirror.

 

Another goal is to make expressive poses that help us see what the character is thinking. People don't just walk or sit or lean, they do it for a reason.

 

An old animator once told me

"don't draw a picture of a man walking, draw picture ABOUT a man walking."

 

Is he following someone? Is he lost? Does he see the manhole in front of him? Is someone following him? The same character could walk different in each of those situations.

 

So... put some "thought" into your poses. Don't worry about over-acting now, the more obvious, the better... make it about the body, not the face.

[Ilidrake]

Sorry about that I guess I should have given a few more details of what is required of me. I do agree with Nancy though. The lean pose has been bothering me since I did it. If there were a shelf or something below his elbow it would make some sense. I may redo that pose.

[Ilidrake]

Here's the updated poses.

[Fuchur]

Here's the updated poses.

 

I would lean him a little bit forward so he can balance out the other leg and arm better at the first image.

Other than that: Nicely done

 

See you

*Fuchur*

[itsjustme]

I think the camera angle doesn't show the pose very well in the third image...makes it look too flat imho. Maybe something like this or this?

[Ilidrake]

So here are the updated poses. Thanks for the feedback it really helped!!!

[Ilidrake]

Okay. Here are the final poses for this assignment. What do you guys think?

 

Here also are the three poses for the new assignment. Weight. 3 poses displaying weight after the person has lifted the object, not in the act of picking up. Feedback much appreciated. The three poses are heavy weight to the side. In the front. And on the back.

Edited October 20, 2012 by Ilidrake

[Rodney]

Interesting.

 

I'll pick one I like and one I think needs more work...

 

The one I think needs additional work is the side carry.

You actually got me out of my chair for this one as I stuffed my clothes back into my suitcase and tried it out for myself.

What you've got isn't an implausible pose but it seems to me to be either an inbetween (or a pose caught in the act of lifting the bag). I noted that the closest I got to that pose was when I momentaryily tried to relax while considering how the weight might shift while walking (I did not actually walk because I thought I had satisfied my curiosity and that doesn't seem to be part of your assignment). My thought and pose was more specifically angled in an arc with my head being away from the weight and not directly over it.

 

Variables not accounted for:

 

- It may be that my bag was heavier

- It may be that the weight of my bag was distributed over a larger area

 

But that is my general feeling on the matter.

Here is an image that captures some of the arc that I experienced in lifting: EXAMPLE

 

I think in animation this arcing to the opposing side could be further exaggerated.

It's interesting to note that I actually like your pose but I don't think that it would make the best extreme but it might make a really great breakdown!

 

As far as the pose that I like the most I'd say it would be the front carry. While I think you could get more out of it through further exaggeration backward and further manipulating the hands, this is most definitely moving in the right direction.

 

Edit: In looking again I can anticipate what someone else might say with regard to this front pose and the one thing I didn't mention would be the twinning of the feet/legs... the whole pose really. Some of that might be necessary here but a little variation can go a long way. If nothing else you could probably play with the upper torso and head. Consider he might be yelling at someone off screen saying, "Where the heck did you say you wanted this thing again?" The other I mentioned already and that is the hands. It'd be nice to see those bearing more of the weight but with the palm(s) of his hands on the side of the toolbox and fingers holding on for dear life underneath. I'm not sure if your character is rigged in this way.

 

Keep it up Lloyd. Latimer is turning out to be quite an interesting character.

[Ilidrake]

Thanks Rodney. I took your advice and made a few changes to the two poses. The side lift pose was based more off of picking up so the weight was not correct at all. I tweaked the hands on the front lift pose and your exactly right. The variation on the hands helped. I also allowed the box to rest on the legs a bit though I don't think it really shows and I may need to rethink the camera angle. And I'm really not sure about the weight on the back at all but it seems to be okay.

[robcat2075]

I'm not sure how he hold onto that giant ball on his back

[Ilidrake]

Ya, I'm not too sure either. I thought about giving him a heavy book bag but still haven't made up my mind to change it or not.

[Ilidrake]

After giving it a good nights sleep I awoke and thought about this last shot. I figured since the actual object itself didn't really matter I changed it to something simple. A square column leaning against his back. He could be picking it up or letting it down. Regardless this would be him holding it in place for a few moments.

 

Just a quick note. The most interesting thing about the pose lessons is it really takes me back to when I was a kid drawing comic books. Trying t find the right pose to express feeling and weight. Reflecting I never realized as a kid what I was doing, I simply drew what I imagined in my head. And it seemed so simple back then too.