Unlock the Full Potential of PoseMyArt: Features You Might Be Overlooking

Finding that perfect pose reference can be a real headache, right? This article will dive into some often-overlooked features in PoseMyArt that are truly hidden gems for creating dynamic and natural pose references.

Absolute Gems

These features are your go-to for quick starts and endless inspiration, offering the most value when you’re looking for dynamic poses. In my opinion, these are the powerhouse features that make PoseMyArt really stand out as a 3D posing app.

Premade Animations: Capture the Essence of Movement

Ever found yourself struggling to draw a character in mid-action, trying to make it look fluid and alive instead of, well, stiff?

PoseMyArt’s premade Animations feature is a secret weapon for exactly that challenge! These animations can range from simple gestures like a head nod to complex moves like a butterfly twirl kick. They give you incredibly fluid movement to play around with.

The Animation Control Bar

The real magic here is the control bar that comes with each animation. You can easily scroll forward or backward through the sequence, pausing at any exact frame to grab that perfect, fleeting moment.

Let’s take the “Butterfly Twirl - Butterfly Twirl Kick” animation. Here is what the animation sequence looks like at different time frames. Note that I toggled on the In Place setting for animations.

Try different points of view.

By experimenting with different angles, distances, and even just tiny timeframes within that animation, you can unlock a whole bunch of dynamic poses you might never have thought of! This means you can pinpoint the most dynamic point of an action, saving you countless hours trying to visualize or find that specific “in-between” pose.

Premade Poses: Your Shortcut to Natural Figures

Okay, so maybe premade Poses isn’t totally overlooked, but it’s definitely one of PoseMyArt’s best features, and for good reason! Instead of painstakingly adjusting every single joint from that default T-pose your 3D models start with, you’ve got thousands of pre-set poses to choose from. They give you an awesome starting point, cutting down on the number of tweaks you’ll need to get your reference just right.

As an artist, you know how frustrating it can be to nail a pose. These pre-made options mean you spend way less time on the technical stuff of posing and more time focusing on the fun, creative parts of your art. It’s a fantastic way to quickly block out natural-looking figures, whether you’re working on a quick sketch or a detailed commission for a client.

For example, you could grab two different models, apply some poses, and then tweak them so they’re interacting with each other. Think about how their heads and bodies would tilt towards one another in a natural conversation.

The small details matter.

Are they walking side-by-side, chatting face-to-face, or is one just a bit ahead of the other? These little details really are what make your scene look and feel natural.

Here’s an example of two models, the Realistic Muscular Male and Anime Basic Male, applying premade poses from the library without tweaking them. They don’t look like they’re interacting at all, do they?

A few minor adjustments, I mostly used the Rotate feature on torsos and heads, can be just what you need.

Premade Scenes: Build Worlds, Not Just Poses

Want to take things even further than just individual poses? “Premade Scenes” are an absolute game-changer for telling stories with your art. These often include multiple characters already posed in different scenarios, sometimes even with props.

If you’re looking for inspiration or need a solid foundation for a multi-character piece, these scenes offer such a rich starting point. You can add more models and props as you see fit to build just the reference you’re looking for.

As an example, here are three different Premade Scenes - one model sitting at a table and two different models sitting on chairs. These are how each of them look fresh from the Pre

It doesn’t take much effort to build an entire scene and tell a story.

Pro Tip: Open Images Library

Don’t forget to check out the “Open Images Library” tab within the Premade Scenes menu. It opens up an additional treasure trove of pose references! It’s like having an expansive visual encyclopedia right at your fingertips.

Clicking the tab on the Premade Scenes menu - Open Images Library!- will open a new tab on your web browser that will show images of different premade scenes that you can open on PoseMyArt.

Premade Features Search Bar

Don’t forget the Search Bar when it comes to the Premade Features of PoseMyArt. These are usually located on the upper right corner of the feature menus.

This really helps with narrowing down the search for the right reference. You can put in keywords for the pose or scene you want.

Basics You Shouldn’t Overlook

These features might seem basic, but when used properly, they can add incredible value, especially for building scenes and perfecting those tiny details that make your work truly pop.

Adjustable Directional Light and Shadows: Sculpting with Light

Understanding how light hits your subject is super important for making your art look three-dimensional, and PoseMyArt’s adjustable directional light and shadows feature is a total game-changer for this!

The tools to direct, resize, and change the intensity of your light source are on the bottom left corner of the PoseMyArt app screen. Click on the lamp/ light bulb icon to access these tools.

More Shadows with the Shadows Setting

You can also show more shadows by activating the “Shadows” slider under Settings (gear icon) on the upper right corner.

This helps you clearly see how light falls on the model’s muscles and contours, guiding you to place your own shadows and highlights correctly. Getting this right is key, because wrongly placed shadows can really make your drawing feel a bit off.

Here’s a sample of what the shadows can look like when you activate that “Shadows” slider under Settings.

Camera Perspective: Mix up Angles and Distances

Don’t forget to move your camera around and play with the zoom too. Different distances and angles can give you different perspectives that can make for different interesting shots even when they come from one pose or group.

Here is one scene, with screenshots from different angles. None of the models and props were moved, just the camera.

One useful thing to keep in mind is that you can actually save camera positions by accessing the Camera Menu on the upper left portion of the app. These lets you save exact positions of the camera and prevents you from having to find the position manually later.

Clicking on that Save Camera Position button when you have your perfect shot on screen creates “Position 0 - X” number of positions. As far as I’ve tested, there’s no limit to the number of saves.

Field of View (FOV): Add Drama to Your Shots

Beyond just moving the camera around, playing with the “Field of View” (FOV) setting can totally change how your pose looks.

You can find the FOV slider under the Camera Menu on the upper left toolbar of the PoseMyArt app.

A wider FOV can create cool, exaggerated foreshortening, giving you those really dynamic, “in-your-face” action shots. On the flip side, a narrower FOV can flatten the perspective a bit, which is great for more traditional figure drawing or character design.

Here are some samples of what playing with the slider does to a scene. A higher FOV is great for fight scenes to portray a sense of motion. See what works for you, but be careful, because sliding the FOV too high can skew the pose too much.

Adding Images: Perfecting Your Composition

This is awesome for context and composition. You can pop in a photo of a background you’re thinking of, or even a rough sketch of your scene, and then pose your 3D model right within that environment. It helps you make sure your character’s pose fits perfectly into your overall composition, making everything feel more natural and cohesive.

You can find the Add Image button on the upper left toolbar of the PoseMyArt app. Just look for the image icon.

For this sample, I use the previous fighting pose scene and insert a background I grabbed off of Pinterest (I believe it’s from Genshin Impact). Some tweaking, rotating, and zooming and I get a fight scene with a nice background.

Export Options: Bridging to Other Software

An awesome feature you can find on PoseMyArt is exporting your work as an OBJ file. This means that you can bring your perfectly posed models back into the PoseMyArt app later or into other 3D software for even more creative possibilities!

For all you digital artists out there, especially if you’re experimenting with AI art, PoseMyArt’s export options are incredibly valuable. You can export your scene in various formats that are super useful for different workflows.

Think about it: you can get Open Pose (which gives you those handy stick figures for AI reference), Depth (for cool depth information), Canny (for crisp edge detection), and Normals (for surface direction).

Intuitive Posing Controls: Posing Made Easy (and Precise!)

Clicking on the model icon brings out the posing points that you can adjust to manipulate your model’s pose. The colored circles can be used to rotate and manipulate different points without moving the entire limb. You can click and drag the grey cubes on different joints to move an entire limb.

These controls might seem a little intimidating at first, but they’re designed to give you incredibly intuitive ways to pose your models! You can easily grab a hand or foot and drag the entire arm or leg into place, which is lightning fast for getting natural-looking movement.

Then there’s precise adjustment over individual joints. This is perfect for fine-tuning those subtle hand gestures, delicate finger positions, or specific foot angles. It’s truly the best of both worlds for getting exactly the pose you’ve envisioned, whether you need quick blocking or detailed adjustments.

Pre-Made Hand Poses

Now, knowing how complicated posing joints can get, especially with hands and fingers, PoseMyArt has a feature that simplifies that- Premade Hand Poses!

With hundreds of premade hand poses that you can choose from, you won’t have to pose every single joint from scratch. Even when a premade hand pose isn’t exactly how you want it, you just have to make a few adjustments. This feature can save you so much time!

To find this feature, you can access it through the model’s toolbar when you click the model icon on the lower left of the PoseMyArt app. On the toolbar, just look for the hand icon (peace sign).

Final Thoughts

So, there you have it! PoseMyArt truly gives us artists some powerful tools to change how we approach our artwork. From Premade Animations for capturing dynamic action and Premade Poses to quickly block out natural-looking figures, to Premade Scenes for building entire worlds and stories. You also have the Premade Features Search Bar to easily find the right reference, and Pre-Made Hand Poses for simplifying a difficult part of posing.

Beyond that, the Adjustable Lighting and Shadows let you sculpt with light and add dimension, while Camera Perspective allows you to mix up angles and distances and Custom Image Loading helps you perfect your composition. And finally, the Versatile Export Options bridge to other software like AI art generators, and Intuitive Posing Controls make posing both easy and precise.

These features are all about making your creative process smoother and more exciting. They’ll save you a ton of time, spark endless inspiration, and help you create dynamic, natural, and expressive pose references for whatever you’re working on, digital or traditional.

Go on, give them a try and discover how these powerful tools on PoseMyArt can truly elevate your art! For a full and ultimate guide to all the tools and features in PoseMyArt, be sure to check out the The Ultimate PoseMyArt Toolkit: Discover Every Feature for Flawless Posing.

About the author

Pia Capuyan

I’ve been a lifelong doodler, bringing characters to life on paper and screen for over twenty years, with more than seven years of paid commissions under my belt. These days, Procreate is my go-to art sidekick. I’m also a writer, so I shape characters not only through art but through storytelling as well.