T-pose or not to T-pose? Or A-pose?

[Sami Parvez]

Hey folks, I wanted to know what is the best practice for for starting poses? Is it a good idea to T-pose right from the get go? or do an A pose as seen here when establishing the base mesh. The only reason i can think of is maybe so its easier to fit the armature since its closer to the starting pose.

I completed this course with exactly the starting pose shown, now I am trying with my own character and my goal is to add this character to a scene.

[Martin Bergwerf]

Hi Sami,

That will probably be more of a preference, than a ‘best practice’.

And it might also depend on the reference, you are using.

[Omar Domenech]

I think I remember Kent saying it is preference, as Martin says. T pose or A pose, you can’t go wrong as far as I know. So Shakespeare would be proud to know the to T-pose or not to T-pose question has an answer.  

[Dwayne Savage]

Common rule is T pose for beginning riggers. It align the arms and hand with world axis thus making it easier for beginning riggers. 

Outside of that, the choice boils down to it depends. Focusing on humanoid characters. If your project is planning a lot of high arm animations like climbing, swimming, etc. then T pose is your choice. If your project is more every day activity like walking, running, most dancing, etc then A pose is the choice. A pose give easier more natural shoulder deformation. With stiff characters like robots or non-flexible armor you want a pose that is half way between the two most common extremes planned for your animation. With animals/monsters you want either rest position(think T-Rex arms) or mid way. Again it depends on the project and your character design. 

[Sami Parvez]

Thanks ya’ll;

1. Dwayne- I am gonna go by the advice and see how I fare, but I get how I need to be thinking. 
2. Martin, Omar –  for context, I am aiming for a a scene with a barista making coffee (my first time doing something like this), but I get what you mean about preference now. Revisting my thought process, I think the proportions of the character need to be factored into the decision too, my concept has thicker limbs and torse so drawing a wider A pose would help me down the line. Since I am starting from scratch by drawing a character and a char sheet that coresponds, I realize that I need to factor some idea of how these proportions will be posing, into the ideas around clothing and thickness, and how much the mesh needs to flex later, so my references work for me. ( hence my conundrum of A or T-pose)  I went with an A pose, but I probably need to redraw a little it so its a wider A-pose to make the modeling easier 😅 

[Dwayne Savage]

You’re definitely on the right track. Stylized large body characters are always challenging because T pose can lead to weird deformation by the rig. A pose can require more weight painting since if the bones are to close it can cause unwanted overlap with automatic weights. So wide A pose or even something halfway in-between T and A can be the best solution. 

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