Making Our Own Poses in Manga Studio 5
NOTE: This tutorial covers using 3D models in Manga Studio! If you're unfamiliar with the 3D model system in Manga Studio check out my tutorial covering it first!
Now that you know how to move your camera around, save poses, and change your model, lets talk about how you can make your own poses!
The first thing you need to do is to grab a 3D model and pull it into your canvas.
The first thing you need to do is to grab a 3D model and pull it into your canvas.
Pro Tip: You can easily change your model or pose by dragging items from your Materials panel onto your canvas like so.
Back to our default pose and model! Now, you can make pose adjustments in a couple of ways. The first is click and drag:
As you can see, click and drag isn't the most precise method for getting the pose you want but, with a little rotation and fiddling you can use it for some interesting outcomes.
You can see how well rotating helped with making Click and Drag a more viable option! It also has the added benefit of moving large portions which can make things seem a bit more natural than if you move the parts one by one. For some things, like arm movements, I will use this and then go back in and refine the pose with the other methods. You can also LOCK joints to help make this method extra helpful. To lock a joint, you right click on it. A small blue box should appear on your model. This means that joint is locked and will not move when you move the rest of the body. You can see an example of that below.
The next method is by using the axis method. Each joint on your model has a series of axes that you can use to turn the joint in various ways. Some of them, like the elbow, only have one because elbows (generally) only bend one way. In order to use this method you simply click once on the joint then grab the axis you want and drag OR mouse over the axis your want and use your scroll wheel.
This method allows you a lot of control over how the pose looks but it can get tedious doing all the minor adjustments which is why I usually use click and drag a bit first and then use the axis method to tidy up the pose and finalize it.
Here we can see the process of making a pose. (To keep it brief I'm only working with the upper body but please feel free to work on lower body stances too! But make sure to check your pose from different camera presets to make sure your character doesn't seem off balance!)
I'd really like this character to be pointing but dealing with all the fiddly fingers might be a bit annoying so....into the magic Materials folder again! This time we're going into 3D>Pose>Hand.
LOOK AT THAT! A whole catalog of hand poses! You can drag these poses onto hands individually by clicking the hand you want the pose on first then dragging the hand pose onto it or you can drag the hand pose onto the main body and it should apply that hand pose to both hands at once. Make sure you're on the 3D object layer or you'll just get another standard 3D model dropped in with that hand pose on both hands.
Okay so we have a pose but does it look okay from all angles? Let's do a check!
Hmmm her legs definitely don't look right since we only worked with the upper body before. Let's see if we can make those look a bit better.
Much better and more dynamic. She might still be a tad off balance but as I draw from her I can work to fix that. Let's do one more turnaround for good measure!
Looking good!
Now, to register our pose, we select "Register Pose to Material Palette", name it, select where we're saving it to, tag it, and save!
Now, to register our pose, we select "Register Pose to Material Palette", name it, select where we're saving it to, tag it, and save!
You'll notice that I tag everything with "Shrine Pose". That's just my way of keeping track of which poses I've made vs poses I've downloaded or the default poses.
TA DA! You now know how to make your own poses in Manga Studio 5! If you'd like to learn some more advanced tips and tricks check out my next tutorial over here.
TA DA! You now know how to make your own poses in Manga Studio 5! If you'd like to learn some more advanced tips and tricks check out my next tutorial over here.