Neutral Model Pose
A well thought-out “default pose” for the character model is critical for the members of the entire production team to be able to perform the tasks that are assigned to them. That said, it is ironic that no two members of a production team can ever agree on the same pose. The art director likes to see a model in an action pose — such a pose gives a better representation of what the character will look like in a shot. The texture painters usually want all the limbs straight, up and out away from the body so that they can see and paint the areas under the arms; having the maximum stretch of the vertices allows them to set the resolution of the textures at their most stretched state, as well. The character TD wants a model that is light-weight and easy to deform. Everybody has an opinion — and we haven’t even asked the modeler who will actually build the geometry!

The truth is, the pose should fit the needs of the character and its ability to perform effectively for all aspects of the production. Here are a few guidelines to start with:

Neutral pose of our example character, Charlie.

• The character should be in what is referred to as a “neutral pose.” For a biped, this means standing upright with the back and spine in a natural-to-slightly-straight posture.
• The head and neck should be straight, level and looking forward.
• The legs should be shoulder-width apart, with the feet flat on the ground plane.
• Knees and feet pointing straight, forward, and with a slight, five-to-fifteen-degree bend in the knees.
• The arms should be out from the side, with a slight bend in the elbow, and the hand in the same plane as the rest of the arm. In other words, you should be able to make a flat plane come close to intersecting the middle of the shoulder, the elbow, and the inside and outside of the wrist and the fingers.
• The most contentious issue with the neutral model pose is usually the arms, and this is where taking note of the specific performance issues of the character is important. The arms enjoy a range of freedom greater than that of any other part of the body. Because of this, the deformations on the area of the geometry need to be able to handle more twisting, stretching and pinching.

The alignment of Charlie’s arm.

Our character has his arms slightly more forward than many other neutral poses — we did this because our character will be spending the majority of his time with his arms forward at a desk. The closer your default pose is to the natural position in which you will see your character, the better the deformations will be in that pose; but keep in mind, you must still be able to obtain all the other possible poses you expect from going over your scene plans and storyboards.