Month: May 2025

Dynamic Poses: Tilt, Rhythm, & Twist

When it comes to creating compelling animation, strong posing is everything. But crafting great poses isn’t just about technical skill—it starts with understanding character. Effective posing is a storytelling tool, and every pose should say something intentional, emotional, and clear. In this clip from a live AnimSchool lecture, instructor Tyler Kakac talks about how to create appealing, interesting poses that are genuine to who the character is using tilt, rhythm, and twist.

Before even touching a rig in Maya or any animation software, animators must ask the core questions: Who is this character? What are they doing? Why are they doing it? A pose is more than a static image; it’s a reflection of the character’s personality, mood, and intent. If you, as the animator, do not have a solid grasp of who the character is, you will not be able to translate that effectively to the audience—they will not understand the character anymore than you do.

Kakac draws from The Illusion of Life, explaining how three guiding principles can shape stronger poses:

  1. Emotional – A pose should carry feeling. But avoid overcomplicating it: “Too much action spoils acting.” Subtle, intentional movement often speaks louder than a flurry of motion.
  2. Intentional – Every pose must have purpose. Mushy actions lead to unclear storytelling. Clear poses stem from knowing exactly what the character is trying to convey.
  3. Simple – Clarity is king. If a character is doing too much, the pose loses impact. Keep it focused so the audience knows exactly what to feel.

To add dynamism and visual interest, three elements can elevate any pose:

  • Tilt – Breaking symmetry adds appeal. A simple tilt of the head or hips loosens a stiff pose and creates a more natural feel.
Consider the bust in the bottom right: it feels stiff in comparison with the drawings to the left, demonstrating how tilt can add life and loosen up an otherwise rigid pose.
  • Rhythm – Think of the body’s overall flow. Strong poses use curves and lines to lead the eye where it needs to go. It’s not about detailing fingers or facial expression right away—it’s about capturing the essence of the movement.
  • Twist – Turning different parts of the body in varying directions adds form, movement, and dimensionality. Avoid flat, direct-to-camera poses unless there’s a good reason. Twist introduces energy and helps tell the story more clearly.

Strong posing is the animator’s first line of communication with the audience, bridging the gap between motion and meaning. When used with intention, tools—tilt, rhythm, and twist—power is added to the pose, and a single pose can not only tell a story, but elevate the entire story to another level.

Watch the full clip from an AnimSchool lecture here: 

At AnimSchool, we teach students who want to make 3D characters move and act. Our instructors are professionals at film and game animation studios like Dreamworks, Pixar, Sony Pictures, Blizzard & Disney. ⁠Get LIVE feedback on your Animation from the pros. Learn more at https://animschool.edu/

Creating Rig Controllers in Maya

Whether you are an aspiring character rigger or an animator trying to rig a simple prop for a shot, knowing how to create rig controls is essential. In this clip from a live AnimSchool lecture, instructor Daria Jerjomina demonstrates how to create rig controls with NURBS curves, change their colors, and create attributes attached to them.

Controllers allow animators to interact with complex rigs in an intuitive and manageable way. While there are various options for building these interfaces, NURBS curves have become the standard for a number of reasons: non-renderable, easily distinguishable, scriptable, customizable, and overall easy to use.

From Unreal Engine forums

The fastest way to create a controller is by creating a NURBS circle, which can instantly be used as a controller. However, the circle an also be further customized, or the user can draw out their own custom control using the CV curve tool. More complex and three-dimensional shapes can be achieved through creating a polygon and snapping the curve points to the vertices. These shapes are easily distinguishable from the rest of the 3D scene, which make them more user-friendly. Color coding further enhances usability—typically red for right-side controllers, blue for left, and yellow for center—allowing animators to instantly understand the layout of the rig.

Some things to keep in mind when creating a controller:

  • The controller should be a single object (parent shape or draw one curve)
  • Delete the history on the controller
  • Freeze transformation on the controller

Custom attributes can be added directly to curves to expose useful controls—like switches, sliders, or dropdown menus for facial expressions, visibility toggles, or rig modes. NURBS controllers also support advanced UI functionality. By locking or hiding certain transform channels, riggers can prevent users from breaking constraints or applying unintended transformations. Attributes can even be muted temporarily or add additional data with string or enum fields for scripting.

NURBS curves controllers blend seamlessly into the animation workflow by being visible where needed and invisible where not. Their scriptability, customizability, and efficiency make them ideal for building controllers that are both technically sound and easy to use.

Watch the full clip from an AnimSchool lecture here: 

At AnimSchool, we teach students who want to make 3D characters move and act. Our instructors are professionals at film and game animation studios like Dreamworks, Pixar, Sony Pictures, Blizzard & Disney. ⁠Get LIVE feedback on your Animation from the pros. Learn more at https://animschool.edu/

Hand Posing Basics

When it comes to character animation, hand posing can make or break the believability of the overall performance. In this clip from an AnimSchool Facial Performance class, instructor Thom Roberts demonstrates some tips for posing hands with more appeal.

Starting with a Natural Pose

The default hand is typically flat and rigid, with no natural form to it. Instead, consider forming a more neutral and relaxed pose. In this state, fingers naturally arc across the palm rather than lying straight. Rotating the fingers slightly in the Y-axis introduces this natural curvature and immediately makes the hand feel more lifelike.

Notice how the left pose feels stiff, while the right feels relaxed.

Breaking the symmetry is also an important step in creating a natural feel. By default, fingers are perfectly aligned and parallel. Introducing subtle rotation helps avoid that uniformity. For example, as soon as you rotate the fingers in Y, it allows for natural overlaps when rotating in X. This technique helps simulate how fingers rest and move in real life — with the pinky slightly overlapping the ring finger, and so on. A common mistake in hand posing is overusing the third finger joint (the one closest to the fingertip). In a relaxed hand, most of the curvature comes from the first and second joints. The final joint is usually reserved for poses that require tension, like clenching or grasping.

When transitioning into more specific poses like a fist, the trick is to maintain visual interest and avoid robotic symmetry. For instance, keeping the index finger slightly elevated or angled differently can add personality and interest to the pose. Avoid even spacing between knuckles — subtle variations help sell the realism.

In quick animation or stylized movement, you can exaggerate hand poses to emphasize motion. This might include scaling fingers or grouping them for a simplified, dynamic silhouette. The goal is to support the direction of the movement and reduce distracting negative space between fingers.

Crafting great hand poses in Maya takes more than just rotating joints; it requires an understanding of anatomy, asymmetry, and the visual language of movement. Focusing on these small but meaningful adjustments will elevate the overall animation and bring the characters to life.

Watch the full clip from an AnimSchool lecture here: 

At AnimSchool, we teach students who want to make 3D characters move and act. Our instructors are professionals at film and game animation studios like Dreamworks, Pixar, Sony Pictures, Blizzard & Disney. ⁠Get LIVE feedback on your Animation from the pros. Learn more at https://animschool.edu/

Animating Weight

When animating any sort of physical action, understanding and being able to effectively convey force is crucial. It’s about using motion to communicate struggle, weight, and intention. In this clip from a live AnimSchool lecture, instructor Anthea Kerou discusses the basic principles of animating weight. Through the classic “lift a heavy object” animation assignment, Anthea demonstrates what key features your animation should have in order to create a feeling of believable weight and force.

Force and weight becomes visible through the pose. A character pushing a heavy object won’t stand straight—they’ll lean, brace, and shift their center of gravity. This imbalance, with feet pushing backward and the torso leaning forward, is how animators signal effort. If a character’s center of gravity stays balanced, it won’t convincingly show that the object is heavy. Another useful way to assess how heavy an object is is the relationship between effort and effect. If a character puts in little effort but causes a big movement, the object appears light. But if there’s a lot of effort and little effect—like a character straining to lift something that barely moves—it signals weight and struggle, and force being applied.

An example of a character lifting a heavy bowling ball – the action of lifting the ball upwards and back creates momentum in that same direction, causing the character to step backwards to compensate for the change in center of gravity.

Note the difference in poses. In the upper example, the character stands straight—if they tried to push a box, it wouldn’t appear heavy/work properly because the center of gravity is straight with the body. In the lower example, the character’s pose allows for more force to be applied towards the box, indicating that it is heavy and requires more effort to be moved.

Gravity also plays a major role in how we perceive weight. Heavy objects fall faster and take longer to change direction. This principle can be applied through proper spacing—using arcs that accelerate as objects fall and decelerate as they rise or shift direction. Even spacing takes away from believability and realism, feeling robotic and stiff; instead, variation in timing and arcs gives the impression of mass and momentum.

From cristinateachingart.com

Storytelling in animation goes beyond motion—it’s about intent and response. If a character tries something that doesn’t work, they should visibly readjust and try harder. This adds realism and emotional depth, creating a much more compelling shot. Whether it’s a simple lift or a complex push, mastering these principles of force and weight is essential to creating realistic animations that resonate with audiences.

Watch the full clip from an AnimSchool lecture here: 

At AnimSchool, we teach students who want to make 3D characters move and act. Our instructors are professionals at film and game animation studios like Dreamworks, Pixar, Sony Pictures, Blizzard & Disney. ⁠Get LIVE feedback on your Animation from the pros. Learn more at https://animschool.edu/