POSING TIPS AND TRICKS VOL 4: WALKING POSES
Hey friends, long time no tutorials! I recently received a question about making natural looking walking poses and thought it was time for another one!
Walking poses are essential to a lot of storytellers, but when you're supposed to show a flow of motion in a frozen moment it gets a bit difficult... In the process of making 8649 million poses for my stories, I have learned a couple of things about making them look more natural (rather than disgruntled legos), soo here they are!
1. Lower Body
When making a walking pose, the first instinct is to move the legs and call it a day. However, walking is actually quite a complex process. And moving the legs is just the first step of the first step. When we leave it there, we make Luna upset.
After that, we are pressing 3 to switch to the side view. Now we need to rotate the toe and the ankle that is behind to show the movement.
Now, we are pressing 1 to switch back to the front view. Select the thigh point to rotate them on the y-axis. To super duper easily do that, select the thigh point, press R and then press Y. As a rule, whatever leg is in the front, the hip should be rotated that way too.
Now, as a finishing touch, we will rotate the thighs again, but this time in the z-axis! (select the joint, press R, press Z) And juuuust a tad, okay, it should be super subtle!
Aand now we are done with the first step! Luna already looks less upset with us, must be a good sign.
2. Upper Body
Now, the golden rule is that the legs and arms counter balance each other. So, if the left leg is in the front, the left arm should be moved the other way.
Now, whichever arm is in the front, we need to rotate the shoulders that way too. Select the clavicle joint, press R, press Z and you are ready to rotate.
Now, we need to make the torso move with the rest of the body. Keep in mind that you need to balance it out every time you rotate something. For example, we rotate the chest to the left, so we need to rotate the neck to the right. This is just an example, you may want a different look, but whatever the goal is, mind the balance. Neck, spine, pelvis... All of these joints can add a lot to a pose.
For the finishing touch, we lower the shoulder that is behind a little, lift the one that is in the front, and rotate the elbows and hands inwards juuust a tiny bit.
Aaaand that was it for the second step! Of course there are so many things we can do to improve this, but for a base it's a good point to start from! Even Luna looks pleased haha.
Now that we are done with the base look and understood the basics, you can explore rotating which joint does what, and have great fun with it! Possibilities are endless!
Of course, this isn't the only or the best way to make a walking pose, it’s just how I approach making mine! That being said, hope it was helpful!
