Posing and Expression Tips 01

**Each section has been transposed below in case the text is hard to read on certain devices, or if translation is needed for certain parts. :)
Everything mentioned in this post is my opinion - this isn't a statement on what you should or should not do in your art, it is just based on what I prefer to do and see.

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First things first, you need to know your armature/rig like the back of your hand. Learn what each bone does, which ones you will use most often and which ones you don’t think you’ll get much if any use out of.

I personally don’t edit my rig unless I’m altering it for animation, because I know what all of my bones do and I don’t want to waste time. If however you’re more comfortable with a simpler rig, one with less ‘mess’ then I’d suggest you alter your rig before you get comfortable with your bone/controller layout.

Expressions are arguably the most important part of posing - they express pleasure, pain and personality to your ‘audience’. Notice in the images above how much the character’s perceived personality could change depending on the expression chosen.

I find that the smaller the changes one makes to a character’s facial expressions, the better. Wide eyes and large stretched lips might work for certain characters but these features can make a character look crazed, or at worst can unsettle your viewer.

For my own artwork I like to use what I can only describe as ‘soft’ expressions. Slight movements in the eyelids, eyebrows, lips and jaw. One of the more important steps in this is the eyes for me - I pose using blender’s ‘individual origins’ pivot point, selecting both at once and rotating by double tapping Z, X, Y. Doing this ensures that they both follow the same rotation target and that they don’t rotate out of the skull.

Whilst rotating I also make sure that upper eyelids  are always posed to cling to the character’s iris (as seen in the images above). This makes sure that I don’t run into any issues with crazed looking eyes, and it also means that I can gauge where the eyelids need to be in relation to the character’s path of vision. If they are looking up, their eyelids need to raise to give way to their irises/pupils for example.

I find that asymmetrical expressions work best - they tend to look more natural, even if the asymmetry is only slight. It also looks like there’s a little more effort put into the posing if you pose things slightly differently, rather than making both sides in the exact same way.

Over time, when posing your character you’ll start to pick up on what their most common expressions are, and these will become a part of their personality or even their brand. For example, Idri is often seen with a curious smile or something of a gasp to portray her naivety, whilst Eroa is often grinning or as if she’s lost in the moment - both of these are staples of her personality, as she’s either the one holding the reins or she’s biting off a little more than she can chew, and there’s no inbetween for her.

Taking your character’s personality into account is incredibly important to making sure that each character in the scene (or your artwork in general) is given some individuality. If all the female characters in a scene have similar textures, hairstyles, etc. a unique expression might just set them apart.