Push That Pose! Dynamic Posing Blueprint

DO THIS RIGHT AND YOU'RE GUARANTEED TO HAVE DYNAMIC AND APPEALING POSES EVERY TIME

Dear Animator,

Have you ever felt like your animations lack weight and appeal? 

Do you feel like your characters “float underwater” after a day or two, looking at them? 

If you’re having this problem, you’re not alone. I’ve also struggled with this, BUT…the solution is easier than you think.

Many animation schools focus on the “motion” part of the animation.

That’s why the classic “bouncing ball assignment” comes first in any animation school.

“Movement” in your 3D software is essential…

However, it’s easy to fall into the trap of fiddling around with your curves, 

or even worse… overlooking that you’re animating a real character, and you end up just animating a lifeless rig.

Back in my student days, I fell into the same trap of moving things around for motion's sake… 

…until my mentor pointed out my flaw. 

He said to focus on your “posing” rather than thinking about the movement itself.

And then added:

"THINK ABOUT EACH POSE AS AN ACTION FIGURE THAT YOU WANT ON YOUR DESK"

Whenever I get stuck in the creative process, I ask myself this question like a mantra:

Would I want this pose on my desk?

If the pose is not worth displaying on my desk, I work on it until it does. If the pose looks good, I move on to the next one until every single frame looks appealing, from all angles.

Many other talented animators grasped the posing concept as well. 

Go ahead and pause on any frame of a Pixar or Disney film… You’ll find perfectly crafted poses for the audience. Each one of these poses tells a story about the character. 

I like to call these “Pushed Poses”

Let’s take a look at what I call “Pushed Poses”

If I tried to copy this pose directly from the reference, I would end up with a very bland pose like this…

COPYING REFERENCE:

(A COMMON MISTAKE THAT KILLS THE APPEAL OF YOUR ANIMATION)

Let’s push the “Main Flow Line” into a harder “S” (Second Image)

You can get a much more dynamic-looking pose within minutes of work.

YES! I WANT THAT ON MY DESK!

Now let’s take a look at this Heavy Punch Pose. 

Let’s push the secondary flow lines with this one.

Notice in the reference that my back arm isn’t visible, and this causes an unclear pose for the audience.

Let's Push...

By pushing the arms into a reverse S shape, the pose becomes very clear for the player, and it’s easier to look at.

See how easy that is, once you know how to look for.

You can take this simple technique, add it to your workflow from now on… and apply it to any character. No more bland or weak floaty poses…

What if I told you that there were dozens of additional of tweaks that I used as a professional animator?  Little “tricks of the trade” to use for every time you sit down to animate.

Would you want to learn more of these? And apply them to your workflow?

Then I’d like to announce:

PUSH THAT POSE!

"THE DYNAMIC POSING BLUEPRINT FOR GAME ANIMATORS"

The only course that teaches you the Art of dynamic posing for game animations in a systemic way.

IN THIS COURSE YOU'LL HAVE ACCESS TO 5 MODULES:

MODULE 1:

-MAIN PILLARS OF DYNAMIC POSING-

• Discover the 3 must-have dynamic posing principles that pro animators use to create head-turning poses.
• How Game animations differ from feature film animation, and why this is a good thing.
• The two most important questions to ask yourself once a pose is final are. (Never move on to the next pose once you answer these questions)
• The real reason why most game animations lack appeal. Put an end to weak, soft-looking game animations by doing this one thing.
• One easy way to direct your players' eye direction for stronger and clearer poses.
• Get my personal favorite six hotkeys (and scripts) for manipulating your character rig extremely fast.
• The truth behind video reference and how to use it correctly.
• How to extract all the useful data from live-action references for believable animations. This way of working will instantly eliminate "guesswork." No more staring at the blank T pose for minutes!
• How to feed your players egos by using the power of posing.

MODULE 2:

-PUSH THAT POSE IN ACTION-

• Watch me over my shoulder as I craft characters from start to finish while I breakdown my methods for dynamic posing.
• Heavy punch, Head-shots, Hand in hand combat, Knock Backs, Finishers, Fighting game style pushed posing demos.
• Mix & Match technique. (Never get stuck on posing even if there's no reference at your disposal)

MODULE 3:

-IN DEPTH BODY MECHANICS BREAKDOWNS & HOW NOT TO BREAK YOUR RIG-

• In-depth look at each body part using reference.
• How to analyze body mechanics and how to apply this knowledge to your own animations.
• How NOT to pose your character rig. (Even pro animators make this mistake)
• An in-depth look into the human elbow and the most common mistakes that animators fall into.
• The five-second adjustment to add the illusion of weight to your character
• How to avoid the "painful knees," "sticky feet," and the "broken spine" syndrome that kills the appeal and believability in your animations.
• The most common fist and grip issues that newbie animators do.

MODULE 4:

-CONTRAST IN POSING-

• What Street Fighter 3rd Strike can teach you about impact in your animations.
• How to add contrast to your poses(with workflow demonstrations)

MODULE 5:

-BONUS LECTURES-

• How to animate without actually animating. Planning your timing and spacing workflow
• The Pose Inception Method. How to find poses within a pose.

WHAT "PUSH THAT POSE!" STUDENTS ARE SAYING:

"Push that pose" improved my posing mindset and opened my eyes to mistakes I have always made.

KHALED MOHAMED FOUAD

Animator

"With this course, Stefan has done an incredible job reinforcing positive practices that every animator should use in their workflow. I was reminded of methods I had neglected and will, from this moment forward, be making a point to follow his words to make my workflow faster and more efficient!"

NICK FERETICH

Animator

"Since I started my animation journey, I usually ran into the common mistake of copying every single frame of my animations. To avoid this, we need to put the two main ingredients of correct body mechanics and exaggeration of key poses. This course will give you solid advice on how to push your key poses and how to extract sharp data out of your video reference."

BATORYK VASYL

Animator

"Most animation courses teach you about what to avoid when posing, and very few explain to you how to craft something appealing. I´ve been in constant look for ways to improve my posing(reading comics, drawing life action, studying martial arts/actors references...) I can't say that doesn't help, but this is the first time I felt a source contains everything (and more, the material goes deep) on one package.

This is something I´ve been waiting for so long. When it comes to posing ¨Push That Pose¨ has been without any doubt the most influential source so far."

FELIX ALONSO DIAZ

Animator

"As a professional animator, I am always looking for new knowledge or workflows to keep me inspired and to keep honing my craft. So when Stefan released his course on posing, I jumped at the chance to see how this highly skilled animator tackles this subject, and I wasn’t disappointed! Personally, I have always been leaning on my instincts when it comes to poses, but Stefan offers you a very nice and more methodical way of approaching posing, with a bag of knowledge of how this can be applied to game animation. Highly recommended!"

REMI TJON AJONG

Animator

"This course has been quite helpful in honing my skills as an animator. Usually, studying from life and references are a great way to plan out your poses. But one big issue that I commonly face is understanding what choices I need to make to improve on the poses that I have. Going through this course has been a bonus in helping me understand what I can do to push my poses even further. Stefan does a great job of breaking down the steps to create more dynamic/readable poses. He provides a lot of good examples of what we can do to enhance our poses. I believe that any animator would benefit from this course, and not just game animators. For me, it's much easier to tone down a really clear/strong pose rather than pushing a really unclear/weak pose. So I do recommend to anyone who is interested in taking a look at this course."

LACVIEN TRANVU

Animator

Animator

I wanted to say that I finished your course, and wanted to thank you so much.

So many cool tips and tricks you use and I will incorporate into my workflow from now on. Great course !

LUCIO MENNILLO

Animator

You might be wondering if “Push That Pose” is the right learning system for you.

These concepts work for anyone who has familiarity with any 3D software. However  the principles I teach can be applied to:

• 2D Animation
• Stop Motion
•  Traditional Animation

I have to repeat: This is not another animation tutorial. Many other animation courses only teach animation but I found that posing itself is the missing gap when it comes to creating appealing animations. 

This is why I decided to ONLY to teach you how to pose beautiful dynamic poses efficiently. 

IF YOUR WHOLE ANIMATION IS A BRICK WALL. I WILL BE TEACHING YOU HOW TO LAY EACH BRICK AS PERFECTLY AS POSSIBLE, ALONG WITH MY FAVORITE TOOLS AND TECHNIQUES.

No more “Stare at a blank T-Pose” problems… Find the confidence to animate anything without worrying about “Where do I start?”

See you on the other side.

Here's what you'll pay to have the full course:

$47 USD

Questions?
gameanimatoracademy@gmail.com

Looking to buy this course for your studio?
Mail me at:
gameanimatoracademy@gmail.com