Pose Mode in Blender: move bones, reset a pose, set a new rest pose and build a pose library

Every character animation in Blender goes through Pose Mode. This guide covers moving bones, resetting a pose, making a new rest pose, copying poses and building a pose library, with the menu names of Blender 5.2.

How to enter Pose Mode

Pose Mode only exists for armatures. Select the armature in Object Mode, then press Ctrl+Tab: on an armature, this shortcut switches directly between Object Mode and Pose Mode. You can also pick Pose Mode in the mode selector of the 3D Viewport header.

The other two modes do not pose anything. Edit Mode changes the rest position of the bones, the reference every pose is measured from, and Object Mode moves the armature as one object.

If Ctrl+Tab opens a pie menu instead, the active object is not an armature, usually the character mesh. Select the armature in the viewport or in the Outliner first.

How to select and move bones

In Pose Mode you select whole bones, never just their head or tail. Click a bone to select it, Shift+click to add more, A to select all and Alt+A to deselect. Select > Select Mirror (Shift+Ctrl+M) moves the selection to the matching bones on the other side.

Bones then behave like objects:

• G moves the selected bones.
• R rotates them. A single selected bone rotates around its root. Press R, then Y twice, to roll a bone around its own length: the axis lock uses each bone's local axes, even with several bones selected.
• S scales them.

A bone connected to its parent cannot be moved, because its root has to stay on the parent's tip. Press G on one and Blender switches to rotation. That is why you pose a chain from the root bone toward the tip, a method called forward kinematics (FK).

On a symmetrical rig, enable X-Axis Mirror in the Sidebar (N), Tool tab, Pose Options panel. With bones named in left and right pairs, such as arm.L and arm.R, transforming one side transforms the other.

How to reset a pose in Blender

1. In Pose Mode, select the bones to reset. To reset the whole armature, press A to select every bone.
2. Open Pose > Clear Transform and choose All. Location, rotation and scale go back to their rest values.

The shortcuts clear one channel at a time: Alt+G for location, Alt+R for rotation, Alt+S for scale. They only act on selected bones, so select first.

On an animated rig, clearing changes the current pose but not the keyframes. Change frame and the animated pose comes back. To keep the reset pose, insert a keyframe on it. Pose > Clear Transform > Reset Unkeyed works the other way: it puts the bones back to their keyframed state, which is handy after trying out a pose you do not want to keep.

Rest Position vs Pose Position

To look at the rest pose without losing your work, use the switch instead of clearing. Select the armature, open the Armature tab (Object Data) of the Properties editor, and in the Pose panel switch from Pose Position to Rest Position. The armature shows its rest pose in every mode, and the character follows. Switch back to Pose Position and your pose is still there.

Edit Mode always shows the rest position. The T-pose guide explains why characters are usually built in a T-pose or an A-pose.

How to make a new rest pose in Blender

Pose > Apply > Apply Pose as Rest Pose (Ctrl+A in Pose Mode) writes the current pose into the armature as its new rest position. Use it to turn an A-pose into a T-pose, or to fix a rig built in the wrong position. The catch is in the manual: meshes deformed by the armature return to their undeformed state relative to the new rest pose. Run the command on its own and the skeleton changes pose while the character snaps back to its old shape.

The order that keeps the mesh where it is:

1. Save a copy of the file. The operation is permanent.
2. Pose the armature in Pose Mode.
3. Select each deformed mesh, open the Modifiers tab and apply its Armature modifier (Ctrl+A over the modifier). The posed shape becomes the real geometry.
4. Select the armature, go back to Pose Mode and choose Pose > Apply > Apply Pose as Rest Pose.
5. Add an Armature modifier back to each mesh, pointing to the armature. The vertex groups are still there, so the mesh follows the bones again.

Apply Selected as Rest Pose does the same for the selected bones only. The manual warns that changing the rest pose can mean re-binding the skinning and adjusting constraints, drivers, animations and exported assets, so do it before you animate.

Copy, paste and flip a pose

• Pose > Copy Pose (Ctrl+C) copies the pose of the selected bones.
• Pose > Paste Pose (Ctrl+V) pastes it.
• Pose > Paste Pose Flipped (Shift+Ctrl+V) pastes it mirrored on the X axis.

Pasting matches bones by name: a pose copied from forearm.L lands on the bone called forearm.L, and nothing happens if there is none. The flipped paste uses left and right names (.L and .R, for example) to find each bone's counterpart. The pose buffer works across armatures and files, but it is lost when you close Blender. The flipped paste is how the walk cycle guide builds its second step.

How to add a pose library in Blender

Since Blender 3.0, the pose library is built on the Asset Browser, and since Blender 4.0 poses are also available from the Asset Shelf in the 3D Viewport. It is implemented as an add-on that is enabled by default: if the pose library is missing from the interface, check that add-on in Preferences. Each pose is an action keyed on a single frame and marked as an asset, so it gets its own name, preview image and catalog.

Create a pose asset

1. In Pose Mode, pose the character and select the bones the pose should contain.
2. Choose Pose > Create Pose Asset. The same button exists in the Action Editor.
3. Pick the library. With Current File, the action is stored in your .blend file and marked as an asset. With another asset library, Blender writes the pose to a new .asset.blend file in that library.

The pose records the location, rotation, scale and Bendy Bone values of the selected bones, and you can just as well grab poses from an existing animation. Preview images are rendered from the active scene camera.

Apply and blend a pose

In Pose Mode, the Asset Shelf along the bottom of the 3D Viewport lists your poses. One click applies a pose. Drag a thumbnail left and right to blend it into the current pose, then release to confirm. If bones are selected, the pose only affects those bones: apply a fist to the whole hand, then an open hand to the index finger and thumb only.

In the Asset Browser, right-click a pose for more options: Apply Pose, Apply Pose Flipped to use a left-hand pose on the right hand, and Blend Pose. While blending, drag right to add the pose, drag left to subtract it, press Tab to compare with the original, and press E to push the pose past 100%.

Update a pose

Right-click a pose asset stored in the current file or in an .asset.blend file to update it from the selected bones: Adjust Pose Asset updates the bones already in the pose, and the Modify Pose Asset submenu offers Replace, Add Selected Bones and Remove Selected Bones.

Inverse kinematics in two sentences

Instead of rotating each bone from root to tip, inverse kinematics (IK) lets you place the last bone of a chain, a hand or a foot, and Blender positions the bones above it. Pose > Inverse Kinematics > Add IK to Bone (Shift+I) adds the constraint, Auto IK in Sidebar > Tool > Pose Options gives a quick version for posing, and the rigging guide sets up targets and pole targets, while our IK rig guide builds a complete leg step by step.

Common mistakes

• G moves the whole character. You are in Object Mode. Press Ctrl+Tab with the armature selected.
• G rotates the bone instead of moving it. The bone is connected to its parent. Rotate the parent, or use IK.
• A bone ignores you or jumps back. Look at the Bone Constraints tab: with default colors, a green bone has a constraint and a yellow one an IK constraint. Also check the lock icons in the bone's Transform panel, which can block an axis in Pose Mode.
• The bone moves but the mesh does not. The mesh has no Armature modifier pointing to this armature, it has no vertex group named after the bone, or the bone's Deform checkbox (Bone tab, Deform panel) is off, which mutes its influence.
• Selecting a vertex group selects nothing. In Edit Mode, the Select button of the Vertex Groups panel (Object Data tab) selects the vertices of the active group. If nothing lights up, the group is empty: parenting With Empty Groups creates the groups without any weights. Assign vertices or paint the weights.

What next

The next step is keyframing: the Blender animation guide covers keyframes, the Timeline and the Graph Editor. To rig and animate a humanoid without building the skeleton by hand, see Mixamo with Blender.