It might seem intuitive that if you’re a blogger you know what you’re looking for in poses but I know as a new blogger, I certainly didn’t know.  So for part of our SL9B celebration, I’m offering up poses 101, what you’re looking for as a consumer.

I do make poses, and while I’ve been doing it almost two years I’m nowhere near a veteran. But for the sake of diplomacy, I’m only using poses I’ve made to demonstrate the good and the bad of static poses.

Once you are dressed you hop on your pose stand and start scrolling through your options. This was one of the first things Cajsa taught me. Look for intersections.

Hand in skirt is one of my biggest pet peeves. There are lots of poses that won’t jam your hand through your attached pieces. Choose one of them.

Broken joints – or avatar joints twisted/moved beyond their natural range result in bumpy weird spots that look bizarre and not so pretty. As a new pose maker shoulders were my nemesis. They still kind of are. Watch how many ARMS DOWN poses I show you next, if you doubt me.

But what if, like me, you wanna wear the long hair? Well then you can run into all sorts of shenanigans if it isn’t mesh – and let’s face it – A LOT OF THE HAIR STILL ISN’T MESH.

Scrolling through poses, you might think you’ve solved it with this one. I know, when I am trying to solve intersection issues, I sometimes focus on the problem area and forget to notice where I might be failing elsewhere. So this pose might work – except my leg is eating my skirt.

And in this one, my hand is being consumed by the skirt. Long hair is a challenge all around. You need poses, for non mesh hair, that have the head position tweaked to allow for hair to fall naturally over the boobies.

This was one of the first poses I made for long hair. It works for the hair, but, I am fairly rigid.  If that’s ok with you then you are done. But, my preference is that my poses always look like you just caught me in motion (thus many are silly). Motion is fluid though, not rigid.

I like one with a bit more sass, and personality, more like this.

I met all the things I personally was looking for, with this pose. Some personality, less rigid stance, no intersections, and no wonky joints (although now that I’m looking at the elbow I’m not entirely happy with it.)

Your poses should show off your avatar and items you have chosen to wear, as a compliment, the way your character is a compliment to your personality.  The cheapest are not the worst and the most expensive are not the best. Try out the pose stands in the store and see how YOU are going to look in the pose. That’s the best way to see how it’s going to work with your shape.

Most importantly, have fun.