How to POSEFY: Tutorial for creating 3D postures and animations

Are you new to POSEFY? 

Welcome. We've prepared this simple tutorial for creating static postures and animated sequences just for you. It's really easy, and after a few tries you will be creating left, right and center. Don't be shy!

1) Create your POSEFY account and sign in

To be honest, the only thing that you really need in order to create static 3D postures and cool animated sequences is a free POSEFY account.

Create a free account and sign in

You can create a POSEFY account here, or simply use your Facebook credentials to sign in. Creating an account on POSEFY takes less that 1 minute and we only require 3 things from you: 

(1) a valid e-mail address 

(2) the public username you wish to use on the Site 

(3) a password. 

That’s it. We don’t care about what school you went to, your date of birth, your mother’s maiden name or the age of your cat.

And relax. We won’t sell, forward or share your e-mail address or bombard you with unsolicited mail. That’s not why we created POSEFY.

After creating your account, sign in over here. You will be able to create your first posture by clicking on the “CREATE” link that you’ll locate on the top navigation menu.

2) Creating your first static posture

In its simplest form, a static posture can be used to illustrate a specific exercise or pose where the sequence of movements is not important. We don’t really care about how to get into that position, or how to get out of it; what matters is the position in itself or a specific snapshot in time.

However, static postures are also useful in POSEFY because they constitute the individual “frames” or “building blocks” of animated sequences. Animated sequences are basically a succession of several static postures played in order, one after the other.

So, whether you’re simply illustrating a specific pose or piecing together the building blocks of an animated sequence, your POSEFY adventure will start with a static posture.

After signing in and clicking on the “CREATE” link, you will see a virtual dummy in a natural, standing position. We call this the canvas, and this is where the magic begins.

Click on Create to start the fun.

3) Basic maneuvers

There are several basic maneuvers that you can try out when creating a static posture:

• To change the 3D perspective of your scene, simply click and drag on any part of the canvas other than the dummy. We call this “orbiting”. Note that you are really not manipulating the dummy or its surroundings, just changing the camera’s point of view.

Click on any part of the canvas other than the dummy and drag to orbit

• Click once on any part of the dummy and drag it across the canvas to reposition it anywhere you want. The dummy can be moved both vertically and laterally.

• Click on the “+” and “-”arrows on the upper right-hand side of the canvas to zoom in and out of your scene. 

Directional arrows (shift scene position) and zoom controls

• Use the directional arrows on the upper right-hand side of the canvas to shift the entire scene (both the dummy and its surroundings) up, down, left or right.

• Once you’ve achieved the desired perspective, you can start working on the posture itself. The dummy has 16 articulated joints that you can manipulate in 3D space. Simply click on any one of these joints to select, and then use the tri-axis controller that pops up to move the joint in 3D space.

Click on joints to bring up super duper tri-axis controller

• The abdomen works slightly different than the rest of the joints on the body. By clicking on the abdomen and then using the tri-axis controller you will be able to move the entire dummy "in one piece". This can be useful, for example, if you wish to create a lying down posture.

Use the abdomen controller to move the entire dummy in one piece.

This part will probably require some getting used to at first, but after a couple of tries you’ll get the hang of it.

3D space visualization does not necessarily come naturally to everyone, but after a bit of practice you’ll be able to configure the dummy in any position you want.

4) Save your posture

Ready? Once you’ve configured the dummy in the position that you want it, go ahead and save your posture. You will be required to fill in a name and a description for your posture, classify it in the most appropriate category and fill in a couple of tags to make it easier for others to find your posture on POSEFY.

5) Share your posture

Once you’ve saved your posture, you will be able to view it under the “MY POSTURES”  tab which you will find across the top navigation menu.

Clicking on a posture from “MY POSTURES” will take you to the posture landing page. From there, you will be able to edit or share your posture across several of the most popular social networking sites. Currently we support Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and Google Plus. 

Posture and Sequence Landing Page

 If you have a blog or website, we encourage you to share the posture by using the “embed code” similar to what you would do with a YouTube video.

6) Create a multi-posture animated sequence

Immediately after creating and saving a static posture, a blue movie reel icon will appear in the top-left corner of your canvas. You can also arrive here by going to “MY POSTURES”, clicking on the static posture that you want to animate to access the landing page, and then clicking on the orange “Edit” button.

By clicking on the blue movie reel icon in the top-left corner of the canvas you will effectively be adding a new frame to the existing posture, thus converting your static posture into an animated sequence. When doing this, a timeline will appear beneath the canvas displaying all of the individual postures in your sequence.

The infamous timeline

You can add up to 10 static postures in your animated sequence by clicking on the blue “+” button in the timeline. Each new posture added to a sequence will be an exact duplicate of the previous posture in the timeline, which you will then be able to adjust in the canvas.

You can also drag and drop individual frames across the timeline to change their position within a sequence, delete individual frames by clicking on the orange “x” icon or change the transition speed between postures by clicking on the blue “-” icon in between postures (speed between postures is set to constant by default, you may select increasing speed or decreasing speed).

7) Review your animated sequence

Use the player directly below the canvas to review your animated sequence at any time. Click on the blue translucent “play” “pause” “stop” and “replay” buttons to control the playback of your animation.

At any time during the animation, you can click and drag on any point in the canvas to orbit that specific frame in 3D space while playing your sequence.

Fingers crossed. It's time to try the player

8) Save and Share

When you’re satisfied with your sequence, don’t forget to save it! At any time you can edit the animated sequence, add and remove frames by going to “My Postures”.

And please, spread the love by sharing your postures and 3D animated sequences. Remember that POSEFY supports sharing on several popular social media networks and also embedding in third-party blogs or websites.

Have fun.