Posing in Daz 3D Studio - Viking Visual Art Tutorial

Last time, I showed you how simple it is to alter the clothing for DAZ 3D Studio using GIMP. This time, I will try to show you some of how I go about posing my characters.

Firstly, I look down through my content library looking for a pose that's close to what I want for my characters. Some of these poses came with DAZ. Others were added from Renderosity or ShareCG. One of the nicest things about poses is that you don't have to look for a pose that's specifically made for your character - any character's pose should work, at least enough to get you there.

I knew that I needed Melia more or less kneeling in the swamp and Yuri is supposed to be helping her out of the water (though he may just choose to prolong the swamp battle instead...) Anyway, I tried this pose first...

To implement the pose, I make sure Victoria 6 (in this case) is selected in the Scene menu (top right). Then, I double click on the pose I want to try. As I looked at the pose, I realized I didn't really like it, so I looked for something else.

Now, sometimes funny things start happening when you go from one pose to the next, so I'd highly recommend using the "undo" button to zero the character again. (Some groups of poses also include a "zero" option which is really helpful!)

Something else that can happen if your clothing isn't correctly parented...

I had parented the shirt to his shorts to make it fit the character better, but it didn't work with the posing. Additionally, something went wrong with the pose itself and Yuri's arm is sort of inside his body. I don't know if that's because of the parenting problem with the shirt or something else... Anyway, that takes us to the micromanaging of the character's bodies. If you ever thought body movement was simple, you will think differently now!

Apologies for the yellow help message on the screen - I'm not sure what I was hovering over. However, it does show you that the program really does try to help you wherever/whenever possible.

Start posing!
There are two ways to select the body part that needs posing.

Click on the character, then again on the body part you want to adjust.
Select the character in the Scene Menu and click on the caret next to the character to access the parts of the body - one leads to another, such as the collar is connected to the shoulder which is connected to the forearm - just like the old song, right?

Similarly, there are two ways to maneuver the body part.

Click and drag the body part. BUT, this can go very, very wrong very quickly! A quick control-z will undo what you just did!
After selecting the body part, in the "Parameters" tab (bottom right section of screen), you can choose whether to bend, twist or move the part side-to-side... or whatever the options are for the applicable body part.

In this pose, the hardest part was getting their hands to meet nicely. I was hoping to get a firm hand grab, but that didn't happen and I was tired of fighting it by then. Still, I think the resultant pose is quite touching - literally...

The other thing here was adding some expressions to their faces. I tried some of the freebie expressions that I've downloaded from here or there... and sometimes, those do very well, but I wasn't happy with them this time.

Instead, in the posing tab (as you can see in the image), there were all sorts of options for different parts of the body - including the lips and eyes. I was looking for something that made Melia look like she's had a lot of fun in the little brawl they've had, but very much enamored with this guy she's just met. (Technically, we are pretty sure they met as children, but they haven't seen each other in at least 10 years and don't remember each other.)

(Note: the clothes changed again after I took this screen shot, so they're not quite the masterpieces of dirt and swamp water they were to become.)

Anyway, I'm very happy with this pose. Next, we'll look very briefly at lighting and cameras, do the render and do our post work.
I hope this little tutorial is of some use to you - especially you, @jamerussell.

Other parts of this tutorial: part 1, part 2

Past tutorials:

Map Development for Alacantis (on GIMP), part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4
Cover image for Acting the Part
Cover image for Brighid's Blood (part of the update).
Cover image for Birth of the Neví, part 1, part 2
Map Development for Velantia, part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4
Map Development for Kranisis, part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4
Cover Image for Name of the Neví, part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5, part 6
Beginning with Daz 3D Studio - my cover image for Mind of the Neví: part 1, part 2

All work done by myself on Daz 3D Studio, GIMP, and/or Photoscape.
Crossposted at Steem, Whaleshares and WeKu.

Lori Svensen
author/designer at A'mara Books
photographer/graphic artist for Viking Visual
verified author on Goodreads
find me on Twitter
also on: Whaleshares, WeKu