Combat pose: need an help! (WIP)

[Gamann]

Hi guys! A question for you: I need to figure out which pose of these two models works better. Are they "iconic" and anatomically correct? What do you think? The character should hold a sword and possibly a shield and it should have the same shape and proportion of the standing model. Thanks a lot! 

[HarveyDentMustDie]

Legs are too long, head is too small.

http://www.posemaniacs.com/archives/646
Here you can find a lot of useful poses for reference.

[tim]

I think the proportions are deformed on purpose and I quite like this art style.
It seems totally fine to me. The first pose is obviously better than the second one.
When you're in doubt, just get up and try the poses yourself to see the flaws.

[PsylentKnight]

@tim: I would agree, but he did ask if they were "anatomically correct".


In any case, I'm going to assume that you're going for stylized proportions. But if not, then you need to address the problems Harvey pointed out. The first pose looks much better to me. The second one seems like it would be pretty awkward.

[JoeCreates]

I'm just going to mirror what the other guys said: I prefer the first, and I quite like the proportions, even though they are not completely realistic.

[HarveyDentMustDie]

As PsylentKnight said he did ask if they were "anatomically correct" and I just pointed him in the right direction.

But now I remember why this seems familiar. This is Epic Tribal Character. http://wayofthepixel.net/index.php?topic=16359.msg148678#msg148678
I recognize it because of the skin tone, and left hand of second posture. I now think that you have gone one step backward from previous tread regarding proportions. Even after you cut his pony tail you should keep the size of his head, that belly button is way to high. You should shorten his legs for a few pixels and add those pixels to his torso if you want to keep his height. Length of his legs in battle and in standing posture are different. If his legs go wide his torso will go down, to compensate that, but if you put those images next to each other you'll see that his head is at same height.

[Gamann]

First, thank you. Then, you are right, I expressed myself badly: with "anatomically correct" I meant "the posture", not the proportions, which are a stylistic choice. I prefer the first pose too, but I just wanted to be sure.  But is there a way to save the second one in your opinion? maybe I will need that too.
thanks again!

[Gil]

The first pose is relaxed, the second has tension. Both are valid in my opinion. The tension in the left leg (his right) in the second pose indicates a sidestep, so you should move up the right foot (his left) and foreshorten the leg to add balance. Here's a quick and dirty edit:



The leg is foreshortened, so you might want to indicate that with shading (maybe even darker) and I didn't really pay attention to anatomy of the leg, just pose.

Also, I really love the art style on this. Good job!

[cels]

I don't know much about fencing, but... this looks odd to me. The one where he's standing upright is amazing. Very iconic, very cool. The ones with the swords look odd.

His stance looks like he's in the middle of combat, almost. His legs are spread far apart, like a fencer. But his hands are down by his sides, and the sword looks more like an afterthought rather than his focus. If you remove the sword, it looks just as natural as with the sword. He's holding it so low, so far behind himself, that it almost looks like he's holding a club.

I suppose it would make a bit more sense if he was wearing armour and holding a shield, because then you don't rely on the sword so much for defense, and you rely more on brute force than finesse and speed. But this dude is wearing green panties.

It's not wrong, it just doesn't make sense to me.  It doesn't look like anything I've seen in fencing. Doesn't look like this or like this. I'm biased though, I'm a sucker for realism in fighting games. But hell, even the original Prince of Persia had some realism. And the Prince wasn't holding his sword like this.

On a purely artsy note, perhaps it should be more clear where the knee is, especially on the leg that is fairly straight.

[Gil]

I don't know much about fencing, but... this looks odd to me.

I'm not sure if sport sword-fighting is indicative of real combat and I'm also not a fan of realism in fighting games. I am however big into believability. Without more context it's hard to critique the pose though. A shield is mentioned for example. Also, the character might of a proud slave (that's the vibe I get) and in that case bad pose might be acceptable.

I do agree that if he was a trained swordsman and he's standing there with just a sword, facing another swordsman, the least you'd expect is that he kept the sword between him and the other guy.