Dancing with the poses
Since this last season of ABC’s Dancing with the Stars is over I thougt now would be an appropriate time to write a little bit about posing that has been on my mind these last couple of weeks.
Dancers sometimes push their poses to the extreme, it’s what makes their dances look good and makes it fun watching them and the same goes for animation. Animation without good posing can at best be really well timed crap. Pushing my poses is something that I have struggled with in my animation and I’m constantly trying to get myself to push the pose a little bit further since it’s always easier pulling back a little then trying to push them more after the fact.
A couple of weeks ago while watching an episode of Dancing with the Stars I started paying attention to the pro-dancer’s posing versus the star’s. The pro usually takes his poses a little bit further and that makes all the difference. Here is a picture from one of the last episodes of DwtS:
Here you can clearly see the difference between the pro (on the right) and the amateur (on the left). His dynamic pose is full of character and engergy while her pose is rigid and boring. More examples:
These examples clearly show how important posing is. But you already knew that.
excellent animation blog, and seriously valid points ^^
..sometimes when i animate, if i have some key poses that i know will make or break my animation, i’ll try to make them the way i like them first and then animate the character to retrofit those key poses =)
but being a complete ameture, everything is a learning curve and there might be some other better way of doing it
- Hjalti Hjálmarsson, 10:31 - 2. 12. 2008
Nice animation and posing ponderings.
And good point with the dancer, it’s fun to compare the pose of those two dancers
This is what Arnar’s wife tought us in the last semester of MMS. To act something and move ourselfs and exaggerate those moves. And then exaggerate some more, up to the point where it feels silly but looks fun
- Jói, 12:40 - 2. 12. 2008
Very valid points. In animation, and illustration as well, it’s the exaggeration that takes the piece further. I mean, look at it this way, if everything were based off real life and handled as such, it’d be boring.
Pro dancers (I wanted So You Think You Can Dance hurhur) have really trained their bodies to go extreme, and that is what makes it so wonderful to watch them practice their craft. Watching someone who can’t dance doesn’t make you feel the same way, except if their drunk.. but that’s an exaggeration that goes in a complete different direction
- Eva, 14:18 - 2. 12. 2008
Excellent examples. Love it! Such a simple idea, yet so true.
- Allison, 7:07 - 21. 01. 2009
internet.
- dhk, 1:39 - 9. 02. 2009