Create a Character Pose Library
A pose library is a catalog of one character in a wide range of body positions — twenty to fifty poses covering idle, locomotion, combat, social, and emotional gestures. It is the reusable source material that animators sample for key poses, illustrators trace for comic panels, and game devs reference for pose-matching animation. Unlike an action sequence (which tells one story in frames), a pose library is a grab-bag indexed by pose category. Answer: Build a pose taxonomy first (idle / walking / running / sitting / fighting / talking / sleeping), generate the canonical 8-angle identity sheet, then generate each pose as a standalone front three-quarter shot with locked seed, reference strength 0.75, and explicit pose description. Twenty poses across five categories is the practical starting library; expand as the project demands.
- 01
Define your pose taxonomy
Categorize: idle, locomotion, combat, social, emotional, environmental. Each category gets three to six poses. A taxonomy keeps you from generating ten "standing" variants and zero "running" poses by accident.
- 02
Generate the identity master
Standard 8-angle master sheet first. The pose library references back to this for every pose — no chained references.
- 03
Prompt each pose with anatomical specificity
"Running, mid-stride, left foot lifted, arms swinging counter to legs" — not "running." Generic pose words give generic outputs. Specific anatomy gives specific poses.
- 04
Generate front three-quarter per pose
Front three-quarter is the highest-information angle for pose reference. Locked seed, reference strength 0.75 — slightly lower than turnaround strength because the body deforms significantly.
- 05
Tag and index the library
Name files by category_pose (combat_sword_overhead, locomotion_running_left). Without indexing, a library of forty poses becomes unsearchable junk by week three.
- Twenty poses minimum for a useful library; fifty is the practical max before maintenance overhead exceeds value
- Build the taxonomy before generating — five categories with four poses each beats forty random poses every time
- Reference strength 0.75 for poses (lower than turnarounds) because the body actually moves; 0.85+ refuses to leave T-pose
- Prompt anatomical specificity: "left arm raised, palm forward, elbow bent ninety degrees" — generic words like "waving" give generic outputs
- For animation source, generate the pose at the angle the animator actually needs — usually front three-quarter, sometimes side
- Fighting and combat poses drift identity hardest — anchor with reference strength 0.8 and re-state hair / eye color
- Index by filename convention from day one — combat_sword_overhead beats untitled_47.png after pose ten
- Animator key-pose libraries follow the 12 principles of animation; reference Disney's twelve principles for pose categories worth including
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