Quote - > Quote - 2. Does a model actually "NEED" to be in the T position to prep for poser rigging.

No. If you're making a human, a case could be made to have the arms down and twisted outward, since this initial pose results in less problems with the shoulders when the arms are bent.

To expand on that a little bit, it is the common standard to model human figures in a T pose, but I think I agree with Paloth, people don't walk around in a T pose, they normally stand and interact with the world with their arms down - there are many, many examples of terrible rigging at the shoulders in the world, and all those models were done in a T pose.  Very commonly when the user brings the figure's arms down, the mesh will deform in unpleasant ways, and you need to bring the arms down practically all the time.  Although what do I know, I think rigging is the most mystifying and difficult aspect of 3D there is.

To add further, the T pose standard is an erroneous practice.  It was standardized based upon the idea that the full range of arm motion from the shoulder joint was from directly 'down' to directly 'up'.  And it was done to keep the arms on one of the major system axes.  Why horizontal was chosen over vertical may have something to do with weighting (who knows).

In reality, the shoulder joint allows a range of motion from directly down (only limited by the arm hitting the chest side) to about 10-20d above the horizontal (depending upon the person - some people are more flexible than others).  Remember that this is shoulder joint rotation only - not including rotation of the collar to raise the arm further.

So, that would put the middle of the rotation somewhere at about -45d or -50d from horizontal, not at 0d.   Just like Apollo Maximus - which has great bending properties at the shoulders.  The deltoid muscle is actually relaxed when your arms are at your sides, so it may even be better (considering advancements in rigging - in other applications, anyway) to start there and deform the shoulder as it would realistically do - as it raises the arm.

C makes it easy to shoot yourself in the foot. C++ makes it harder, but when you do, you blow your whole leg off.

 -- Bjarne Stroustrup

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