Find the Key Poses
Lesson 1 of 6 · Intermediate · 7 min
What you will make
Two key poses drawn in a 48 by 16 sheet, with the middle cell still empty.
Lesson checklist
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Create the 48 by 16 sheet and draw the resting and stretched poses, leaving the middle cell empty.
Open a 48 × 16 practice canvas with lesson examples and onion skin enabled. Your work saves automatically to My projects.
Starter files and backup import
Follow the steps
Draw the two extremes first and leave the middle empty on purpose.
Start with: A finished character at a size you can animate, or start from the robot provided with this course.
- 1
Decide the size of the canvas
Three frames of 16 by 16 gives 48 by 16. The canvas width is fixed by the frame count, so choose three deliberately rather than starting with two.
A 48 by 16 sheet.
- 2
Draw the resting pose
The character's normal standing position, lowest to the ground. This is the pose the loop returns to, so it must be the most comfortable one.
Key pose one, fully finished.
- 3
Draw the extreme pose
The highest or most stretched point of the movement. Change only what should change: body height, limb position, nothing else.
Key pose two, fully finished.
- 4
Leave the middle cell empty
Do not fill cell three yet. Looking at a deliberately empty slot is what makes lesson two about blending instead of about inventing.
Two key poses with a visible gap between them.
See the technique
An empty 48 by 16 sheet
Both key poses, middle empty
Learning notes and references
- Pick the two poses that carry the most information.
- Draw the extremes before worrying about the transition.
- Understand that the middle frame is a blend, not a new pose.