You can pose your characters but if the poses are not realisitc and the faces are not realistic ..it gets boring just putting characters and posing them at random.

Also you have to pose them so that the feelings are transmitted, if not.. it's not art..it's just like when someone who doesn't give a d*** about art just creates art because he has to.

But i find it really hard to create Poses and faces that look real and create feeling. All my attempts so far, it seems like the characters are just a bunch of plastic. Yet i've seen pics created by renderosity members that make me feel lots of things even if it's just a one character with nothing else.

How???? Can anyone tel me how i can learn to pose characters with meaning? so that my stories are fun and can generate emotions and the process becomes fun too

My suggestion is two fold...

1) Practice the expressions that you want in the mirror. Make sure that you are by yourself (so people don't think your are crazy), and try to act out the expressions that you want. This is a time honored animator's technique.

2) Take pictures of your expressions and use them as photo references. A little more modern than 1) given the benefits of digital photography. Try to match the 3D character to your pictures as much as possible. Learn to use the auto timer on your digital camera. Some cameras will even take a quick 10 pictures in a row so you can simply pick out the best one. This works great for facial expressions with movement, like laughing, etc.

The same techniques work great for body poses.

As for all of the characters looking the same, you should look at these models as "starting points", and then morph/texture the heck out of them so they look nothing like the originals. You can get some great photo-references from http://www.3d.sk, however be prepared to see your share of naked old guys doing life poses :S. Personally, I just go for the head shots.

Hope this helps!
Konan

Theres a bunch of free poses for facial expressions , some of them are a bit over-the-top but by dialing back the morphs can look quite good. Use them as a starting point to see what morphs were used to build the expression and then experiment.  Konan idea of photos or mirror is a good one too. When posing the body remember that knees and elbows dont bend sideways so there are some dials you just should not use for realism, also consider what muscles become more prominent in the position desired. Making biceps and thighs bulge a little can make a big difference  

From a more esoteric standpoint...;) First, you need a good story.

Second, you need to make people care about your characters. Have them interact with each other. For example, you can have each character's eyes look at the eyes of the other characters. Think about how people interact. (no disrespect, but this may 'offend' a few people). Say a sword fight.
In reality, you want your feet placed right, you want to be watching the eyes of the opponent, or at least the sword, or raygun, or whatever. If someones' swinging a Mega-ginsu at your vitals, you're going to react to that.  You've already covered this, but this is more about how... So have the eyes looking at something or someone.

That being said, this is the closest I've ever gotten to pulling it off...;)

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/index.php?image_id=1693283

Third, the environment. Lighting and textures are 2 things I think really make better pictures. Some shadowing, using lighting to convey the tone of the picture (for example, the old 'light shining up from below to the head can convey a sense of menace" kind of thing.

And finally, I think consistency is also key. The character should look the same from panel to panel (subject to damage, character development, etc). Continuity helps to ground the story, so you can miss an issue and still have a feeling for what's happened.

That's all I can think of for now.

If the head dials are grouped you can try doing facial expressions with the morph putty tool. Also, think about where the two eyes would point... the will not be parallel unless the person is looking far in the distance... think about the point where the axis of the two eyes would meet... think about the tip of the head and whether the eyes would look up or down. Try splitting morphs or using magnets to try to introduce asymetry. Try dialing expressions oynly using all the parts of the face and spawning these as single morphs that can dialed in slowly. Think about the eyebrows, the upper and lower eyelids... how people use those in connection to their mouth for expressions. If you can afford it buy a product like one of the Expression Magic tools and look at the makers choice of expressions and the names they give them. Use magnets or morph brush to fix mouth expressions, Work on mouth asymetry, use phemnome dials for expression, use jaw morphs and chin morphs as part of expressions. Try to imagine where the weight and ballance of the hips head and shoulders... people will imagine on expression on a blank face based on the tip of the head... really think of where the figure would be looking relative other figures and the viewer and think of where their face is pointed sometimes seperate from where their eyes are looking. Try shifting the torso and hips with the IK turned on for both the feet and hands. Try using the chain break tool. Look at figures from the side... pose the hands using the hand cameras and really looking at poses of your own real hands for what is realistic and possible. Maybe you could take an acting class at community college if you can, they ought to teach you about posture and body language and facial expression and "gaze". Play with an emotive character like Aiko 3 and look at some cartoon drawings. Work with diffuse color skin and no textures to take away the extraneous detail when you are posing. These are my tips.

Important thing about making comics - realism is secondary. The important thing is selling the pose. You'll need to exaggerate the poses as well as the expressions and camera angles in order to make the panels more interesting. Layout is important, so do quick sketches on paper of how you think the panels will play out. Use stick figures if you feel you can't draw, as these are just to get ideas and mood nailed.

If you look at comics, you'll see the majority of books don't aim for realism so much as they aim for believability. Establish the scene, establish the character, establish the mood. These things are more important than trying to mimic realism when dealing with comics.

Well, I'm sitll too "stiff" when doing poses, Poser isn't my main app and too few brain cells to learn it all! :p
I do try and buy morphs/expressions and textures with more "Human" and less" Plastic barbie doll" looks, when I can.

I Render Poser folk in Vue, because I create scenes. When I made my webcomic, it's more of a graphic novel, I had to make scenes, the scenes give the characters expressions etc, meaning.

To make life easier, I saved all the mateirals I use for each character in Vue into a specific folder so I could easily apply them again, keeping continuity :)

I want to do more of it, I'm just too easily burned out etc nowadays due ot illness.

http://www.silverblades-suitcase.com/wildspace/index.htm

it's necessary to use an human artist who can draw facial expressions when doing comix IMVHO.
however, poser is valuable to get approximate poses and lighting when drawing the rest of
the body.  the difficulty with trying to use poser by itself to depict facial expressions might be
described by the term "flat affect'.  it's one reason why attempts to do realistic 3d animated
movies always lead to critical debacles.

tebop, you bring up a topic which we could write a book on. But let's keep it simple. There are two things which communicate emotion; face and hands. Lighting: if it's a comedy, make the lighting bright and colorful. If it's a drama, make it dark and moody with heavy shadows. All movement begins at the Hip. For natural-looking poses, check out DM's Pose Boutique here in the marketplace. Or Aery Soul's free three sets of poses at: http://www.aerysoul.com/free.html Or more free poses by Adam Thwaites at: http://www.most-digital-creations.com/home.htm These pose sets will give you a good boost! Have fun!!! : D

Well said Elfwine!.... and expression is not only eyes or mouth.. i have a webcomic and like Silverblade i create scenes, even when i started using Poser i was a little worried about the "looks" on the characters but you know what?... that's abosolutely secondary!.... first you need a BIG sotry ..and the GOOD framing!!... that's all framing and exagerating!

Many people who reads my webcomics writes me saying how much they love the way my characters looks... and im no poser expert!...

So have fun!! practice expressions with your face and with your characters give them a great personality and script... and enjoy!

Good luck!

ajmarti said most important thing.
Expressions looks natural if they affect more then head (it concern to movies and comics). I was really dissapionted when I've seen "Beowulf" and Characters speak with mouth and eyes only. Go to the mirror and try to say somthing not moving your neck.
Moreover in real world symetry does not exist. All faces are not symetrical, all poses are not symetrical. Add some disortion to your figure and Koshini starts look more natural then Victoria.

The rest depends of texture/materials and lights. Poser has great tool "atmosphere" which make scene realistic. Unfortunatelly "atmosphere" make your rendering process VERY VERY long, but if you have few years I recommend try.

 Thanks alot for the info guys.

Well i'm  not a pro at anything. I just want to make stories( not necessarily comical always) using images and putting them together with a program such as Comic-Life( for mac) with dialog bubbles etc.

Heere's an example of my pics that look empty of emotion.. i just used a James poser from the P6 collection and a face from one of my bought expression sets

It looks so plain and plastic

 This is another image..what i did is apply the same pose.. And apply one of my bought expressions but i modified the expression by using the dials to move the brows up a bit more and open the mouth a bit more.

I also rotated the camera alittle. It looks much better but i dont know but i guess i stil need to point the eyes, like you guys said but even with that.. notice how the hand looks all static , i dont get a sense of energy coming out of the chahracter.

 Hokay, let's see here......

1. The arm and shoulder are at dynamic opposites. Stand up and throw a punch, with the opposite hand on the shoulder, and you'll see what I mean. With the punching arm at full extension like that, the shoulder is depressed, as you have already expended the energy in the punch. But in your example, the shoulder is raised, as if the punch is still ongoing....which doesn't match how straight and low the arm and fist are. They -are- done with the punch. Drop the shoulder a bit, until it looks as if the entire body mass was behind the punch.

2. The upper one actually looks better to my eyes; in the lower one, his expression is more like 'Oh shit, I've been kicked in the danglies...!' The eyes are narrowed in anger. Lifting a corner of the mouth open more, so it looks more like a snarl, would help there. Opening the jaw a bit, so that it seems like he is either exhaling explosively or growling something would also enhance the emotion of the scene.

3. The biggest problems is that neither image is truly finished. One of the biggest dramatic tools you have to play with is lighting. Take the upper one; Poser default lights, right? Here's some ideas to play with: a) place a spot to one side, and adjust it just enough to throw a reddish light onto one side of the face, then one by one, turn off the infinite lights. b) Make the light more a dark reddish, to make it seem as if he is flushed with anger and adrenaline. c) Crank the specularity on the eyes all the way up, so that they glitter in anger. If the  present light doesn't make them visible enough, then place a spot 'beside' the camera on each side and focus each one on one eye.

4. Other options is adding dynamic elements to the scene. A door burst through. Set up a wall prop and tack a dynamic cloth object over the opening, and simulate a curtain burst through. Maybe curl the fist at the wrist more. Put a coat on him that his blown backwards by the wind of his motions.

If you want to, learn a little bit about non-verbal communication.  Generally we hold our body and use our hands in specific ways which convey different emotions.  Moving your eyes one way tells people you are trying to remember something, move them another and you are telling them you are trying to make up a lie.

Pick up two books:

Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud

and

How To Draw Comics The Marvel Way by Stan Lee and John Buscema.  These two books will cover understaning not just how to make your panles/poses more interesting but also why certain things work while others don't. 

I also discovered that some poses require additional elements to sell them. For example, the punch you posted. Despite the fact that the shoulder is raised when it should be lowered, the punch itself is decent but lacking something. Simply put, that something is a reaction. There's no villain being thrown back from the punch and that can take away from the impact of the panel. I learned this lesson while sculpting for a challenge. Some poses require both the action and reaction in order to work.

I think there is more emotion in your first image of James than in the second :)

The work looks good enough to me! Maybe just a little light to boost the saturation. Here is something to try... use only an IBL light with some AO and an edge blender on the IBL to boost the contrast. IBL can flatten scenes to make them more toon like... sort of like z-tooning.

Ditto on those two books! Had to go off-line and do some rendering. Here is a thought experiment. Imagine a guy throwing a punch and you are filming it. What you get is a sequence of images. While they are all necessary to comunicate the 'action'. The two frames which convey the most energy are the first frame and the last one. The first frame shows all the pent up energy of the comming blow, and the last one shows the release of all that energy. Another trick is to sometimes change the camera angle. Imagine you are drawing someone's face, by looking straight at the face it looks flat, featureless. But by having the person turn their head 45°, you add angles that were not apparent before making the face more interesting. Here's the first of two pics of a great pose I made of a sword attack. This is a 'head on' shot.

And the same pose from a different camera angle. Which one conveys more 'energy' in the attack?

Dang, I used to have the Marvel book; got that back in the 80s...;) thirds on the recommendation...

 

http://daymond42.deviantart.com/art/well-there-s-your-problem-108111903

There's one of my most recent attempts at a mini-comic thing... I've been battling with figuring out a good ongoing storyline, so in the meantime, I've just done quick li'l snippets that act decent on their own.

Expression is definitely one of my key things that I focus on... And boy, Terai Yuki 2 can land those expressions greatly. :D

And finally, using your render as a starting point, I remade the punch pose as an example. Note the extremes of the limbs. Does this help any?

Various fighting and standing poses:
4sidedpolygon.com/blog/2008/06/20/victoria-42-pose-set-1/
www.most-digital-creations.com/free_poser_poses_textures_morphs_props_10.htm
telias.free.fr/zipsz/poser_poses/greek_hoplite_poses.zip
telias.free.fr/zipsz/poser_poses/indian_girl_p.zip
www.actualstudios.com/freestuff/EvoLDPoses.zip
www.actualstudios.com/freestuff/EvoLDPoses2.zip
www.actualstudios.com/freestuff/EvosCOntS.zip
www.actualstudios.com/freestuff/evossxyposes.zip
http://www.angellsgraphics.com/Freebies/V3everydaypos.zip
www.angellsgraphics.com/Freebies/A3EverydayPoses.zip
www.angellsgraphics.com/Freebies/pinupposes.zip
www.angellsgraphics.com/Freebies/DeninePoses.zip
www.angellsgraphics.com/Freebies/V4ClassyPoses.zip
www.angellsgraphics.com/Freebies/SpritelyPoses.zip

http://mystic-nights.com/directory/index.php?logic=and&maximum=&term=Poses&&sr=10&pp=10&cp=2

 Great PUnch Elfine, definitely muuuuuuuch better than mine

One common problem I see in posing is the stiffness in the hip, torso and shoulders.  This one of the big hallmarks of the bad "Poser Look".

When using many of the stock figures such as victoria or michael, people assume that the ZERO position is the "normal" standing pose.  This is not at all true.  The shoulders are set too high, the spine is not curved correctly and the hip is rotated wrong for a person standing at rest.

When I start a new pose, I always start by dropping the shoulders to -10, rotating the hip back and bending the chest and neck forward.

i think m any of the times, my problem is also with camera angles or with composition of scene. I need to put objects and environment around the characters but it doesn't feel like the way i make my environment is realistic.

Quote - i think m any of the times, my problem is also with camera angles or with composition of scene. I need to put objects and environment around the characters but it doesn't feel like the way i make my environment is realistic.

With regard to this the most Poser cameras are parented to the centre of the scene (exceptions are Posing cam, parented to the figures hip, face and hand cameras to the head and hands) This can make following motion and moving round a scene difficult. the only "free" camera is the Dolly camera. A solution is to add a primitive from the props library to your scene and parent the camera to that, then move the primitive not the camera, remember to make the prop invisble when you render so that it doesn't cast shadows into your scene.

Looking back at your punch picture,as others have already commented it looks a bit strained, remember that any movement affects more than just that part of the limb, so try always to adjust all parts slightly rather than say getting the arm in place by shifting the collar which is how that pose looks to me. Acting out is the best way, try to feel where the pose is driven from and how it affects the joints above and below it. Based on Poser's default animation speed, a single frame is capturing 1/30th of a second, so if you act out you can try to choose which fraction of the motion you want to capture.

 You've already got a ton of suggestions short of "go back to school, major in animation", which is always an option.

My recommendation is stay active, keep creating strips. Maybe you won't like what shows up and you'll give up. OR. You'll have the drive to keep at it until you like what comes from chasing details.
That Drive is the most important element;  your desire to tell a story by making a picture. 

The job will always be tedious. The job will always be repetitive. Your drive will push you past that part that makes most normal people find some better use of their time. The repetition over time will open your eyes to possibilities that can't be mined from the best of forum comments because it will be your experience based on your own choices.

Ditto the Scout McCloud books, Making Comics and Understanding Comics. Get them as fast as you can.