Carlos Baena:
Posing a character:(Reference:
CGChar)
Things I look for when POSING
the character:
-The basic stuff like silouette will help you started. Silouette explains in
part the concept of negative and positive space. Basically, imagine your own
shadow in a wall. You have the white wall, and then a silouette of yourself.
Well, in there you are already playing with negative and positive space. What
you do with your arms in relationship with your body, your head direction...your
spine. If you experiment in just a wall with your shadow, you'll notice how
certain poses where the arms are out, seem more clear than poses with the arms
around the body. When too much of the action in the arms is around the body, you
are playing with elements that can confuse one to the other. It starts to become
more of a design/composition issue...but clarity should be number 1.
-Also, is the pose not as cliche? Is it a pose we can relate to nowadays? As
animators, sometimes we get very influenced by old Disney films. Sometimes, the
poses of some of those old characters worked those days, but some of the poses
don't work these days. They become obsolete...and that's why it's important to
pay attention to what people do TODAY. So that audiences can relate to what your
character is doing. It's the difference between acting today and acting of a
50's Film Noir. The acting in some of those of films becomes old school or even
cheesy very fast.
-Is the pose too busy? Then no. I don't want to do a busy pose. If I'm not
holding that pose for a while, I only have a few frames to make sure this pose
reads right away. So the less complex the better.
-Is the pose dinamic? When I say dinamic, I am also referring, is the pose
interesting to watch? Stay away from anything default. And assymetry will also
help you. One arm in a different pose as the other arm, to break things up. Same
thing applies to the spine and head. If we look at the spine and the head, we'll
notice that there is an imaginary line that goes from your hips all the way to
your head. Play with that line, and get some nice line of actions throughout the
character that express emotion. Definitely try to get Emotion, mood and
personality out of the character's pose. It's the number one thing.
-Does the pose have weight in itself? Are the different parts of the body
working with each other?