Golden poses vs. posing

   I hear a lot of misconception between the difference between posing your character and finding your main storytelling poses for a shot.

    You see, there are two different kinds of poses. There will be your ‘golden poses’, only a couple poses that will tell the story or performance of your character. Then there is posing your character, these usually happen in breakdowns from a character going from one place to another.

    For instance, a walk cycle has 4 poses in it, but are they going to be your storytelling poses in the scene? Of course not, they ASSIST the golden poses to help explain the story of the shot. 

    In planning, I will draw out my golden poses, really spend some time with them to make sure they say everything I want to say. Then I will draw out my major breakdowns. This is just as important as the golden poses as this is where the animation happens. Rarely would I even draw out more than one pose to indicate a walk.  (Be wary of over-acting as well. Ollie Johnston would only use two golden poses in a shot, there is no need to go around adding poses all over the place)

    Basically, the amount of keys you have is a workflow issue. The amount of poses you have is a performance thing. You can have lots of keys without a lot of poses. Running the tires in the obstacle course, your character would be moving around WITHIN a ‘try-to-stay-balanced” pose. There would be lots of keys, but ONE pose.

"Stick to your Golden Poses"

           - Ollie Johnston