Using premade poses

The figures that we can use in Studio, such as Victoria 4 or Genesis, are completely articulated and they can be posed like a person. They are not only made to look like humans, but they also react to the poses in subtle ways that make the final result convincing. For example, while moving the eyes, the eyelids bulge and deform in ways to conform to the shape of the underlying eye orb. Once we pose a figure, we can save that pose into a file. This allows us to recall that pose without spending all the time that was initially needed to pose the figure. To apply a presaved pose, all that is needed is to load the base figure, and then apply the saved pose to it. Files that store poses are called Pose Presets, and Studio comes with a few of these presets already installed with the program.

Let's first explore this approach.

We start by adding a female Genesis figure to the scene. We have seen the steps before, but here they are again:

The figure should appear in the scene in the standard T pose. Now that we have a figure and it's selected, the Smart Content tab will adapt and show the items that are relevant to our selection. Let's click on the disclosure triangle of the Presets category. Once all the subcategories are shown, we can click on the Poses subcategory. This action causes the Smart Content tab to show us all the poses that fit Genesis.

You can refine the filter of poses shown by opening the Genesis subcategory. This will show the Basic Child, Basic Female, and Basic Male groups. The names of these groups are more of suggestions than restrictions. The fact that a pose is under the Basic Male group doesn't prevent us from using it for a female character.

To use a pose preset, once the figure is selected, just double-click on it.

You can verify which object in the scene is selected by finding which object is highlighted by its bounding box, which is the series of four corners enclosing an object. Here is an example:

Try applying the Kid Leaping 01 pose from the Basic Child category. As we can see, it works on an adult as well.

A full-body pose changes the whole body, but there are several packages of poses available that only affect a portion of the body, such as the arms or legs. Using those packages of partial poses is a great way of creating complex poses by applying a building block approach. For example, the product Handy for Genesis, sold at www.daz3d.com, has a full set of useful hand poses that don't change any other part of the body. Here is a sample of the poses available in that set:

Using that set, we can quickly add some variety to our character's hand and do it in a second. Hands are very laborious to pose, so it saves a lot of time and effort if you have a good library of hand poses. We will see in a later chapter how to find additional products for Studio, including pose sets.