KAIN: the posing process

 When you're doing a custom pose, you want to spend plenty of time working with the model.  If it doesn't look realistic it's going to be awkward and not look good.  Since I've taken it upon myself to custom pose the Kain models, it has taken me 3 days to:pose, take a break, re-pose, take a break, and start the posing process all over.  I even took pictures of myself in the pose in the mirror to see how my legs,hips and arms would be realistically positioned.  Of course I'm trying to keep it in line with the Amano artwork as much as I can, but there are certain limitations working with the models of course.
  Here is what I've learned so far.
   Kain is standing on one foot, with all of his weight on his left foot, and his right leg raised beneath him.  His right hand is holding his lance up next to his side, while his left hand rests at his side, and his head is slightly angled down with his hair blowing behind him.
  In order for this pose to make sense, his left leg must be underneath his center of gravity, so somewhere between his shoulder blades.  When you stand on one leg, your weight distribution shifts, and therefore your hips are going to be angled as well.  Holding your right leg up, you'll notice that your right leg will probably come underneath your center of gravity as well, and that your ankle will always (naturally) fall in line with the shin.  Holding your hand naturally at your sides you'll see that they don't fall straight, the muscles in your arms keep them from falling into a straight line, there is a slight bend.  Your resting arms clavicle will be even if not slightly pointing downward due to the weight of your arm.  The arm that holds the lance's clavicle will be close to parallel if not somewhat upright.  For the most part the right arm is just held back and the wrist is angled down.

whew that was long but based off of that I would suggest that you take plenty of time when custom posing a model, and also you should use multiple reference materials.  The "iconic" Kain poses that I used all had a profile shot of him, from one side only.  A 3D model on the other hand is more than a profile shot.

After all that, here is what I ended up with....

One thing I had to compromise was the hand.  I couldn't manage to put it in a fist of sorts, so I just put it in a relaxed pose as most people probably would when they have their hand at their side.  But I believe that I've ended up with a quality product,  time to work him in sketchup...

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