T-pose: what it is for and how to create it in Blender

Open a character downloaded or exported from a modelling application: chances are it is standing with its arms spread out horizontally. That is the T-pose. It is not an animation pose but a working position, the one in which the skeleton is built and the mesh attached. This guide explains what it is for, how it differs from the A-pose, and how to get back to it or create it in Blender.

What is a T-pose?

A T-pose, also written t pose or tpose, is a reference posture. The character stands facing forward, legs straight and slightly apart, arms stretched out horizontally on each side. Seen from the front, the silhouette forms a T. The head looks straight ahead, and the hands continue the line of the arms.

In 3D animation, this pose serves as the zero point. The skeleton, called an armature in Blender, is built in this position, and each animated pose is then defined as an offset from it. The Blender manual puts it this way: in the rest position, each bone has a neutral location, rotation and scale, and Pose Mode records offsets from that state.

Why model and rig in a T-pose

• The limbs are separated. The arms do not touch the torso, and the legs do not touch each other. When you attach the mesh to the skeleton with Parent > With Automatic Weights, Blender calculates the influence of each bone from the distance between the vertices and the bones. Arms held against the body make it assign torso vertices to the arms, and the other way round.
• Symmetry is simple. A straight, symmetrical character can be modelled with a mirror and rigged with bones named in pairs (.L and .R suffixes). Blender relies on this convention for mirror editing and for pasting a flipped pose.
• The tools expect it. Automatic rigging services and animation libraries exchange characters in a known neutral pose. A character that is already posed complicates any transfer.

T-pose vs A-pose

The A-pose is the other common reference pose: arms lowered by roughly 30 to 45 degrees, so that the silhouette forms an A. It is closer to the natural position of the shoulders, which limits stretching of the mesh at the shoulders and armpits when the character lowers its arms, in other words most of the time. The T-pose lines the arms up with a world axis, which simplifies the orientation of the bones and clears the armpits for weight painting.

Neither is a standard. A character that spends its life with its arms by its sides deforms better if it is rigged in an A-pose; a character meant for a service or an animation library must follow the pose that service expects.

One detail matters in both cases: elbows and knees slightly bent. The manual for Rigify, the rig generator documented with Blender, asks for a slight bend at the knee and the elbow so that it knows which way they bend. Perfectly straight limbs leave the tool guessing.

Putting a character back in a T-pose in Blender

If the character was rigged in a T-pose, its rest position is already a T-pose. There are two ways to get back to it:

1. Clear the pose. Select the armature, switch to Pose Mode, select all the bones, then Pose > Clear Transform > All. Location, rotation and scale go back to their neutral values. The shortcuts Alt+G, Alt+R and Alt+S clear location, rotation and scale separately.
2. Display the rest position without clearing anything. In the armature properties (Object Data tab), Pose panel, switch from Pose Position to Rest Position. The character is displayed in its rest pose in every mode. Switch back to Pose Position to get the animation back.

Clearing the pose on a frame that carries animation keys does not change those keys: change frame and the animated pose comes back. For a simple check, Rest Position is therefore the safe method.

Making a pose the new rest pose

A common case: a character modelled in an A-pose has to switch to a T-pose for a tool that requires it. You then have to change the rest position itself. Work on a copy of the file: the operation is permanent.

1. In Pose Mode, rotate the bones of one arm until it is horizontal. Copy the pose (Pose > Copy Pose, Ctrl+C), then paste it flipped (Pose > Paste Pose Flipped, Shift+Ctrl+V): Blender applies the mirrored pose to the opposite bone thanks to the .L and .R suffixes.
2. On the mesh, apply the Armature modifier (modifier menu, Apply, Ctrl+A). The deformation becomes the real shape of the mesh.
3. Select the armature, in Pose Mode, and choose Pose > Apply > Pose as Rest Pose (Ctrl+A). The current pose becomes the new rest position.
4. Add an Armature modifier to the mesh again, pointing to the armature.

Step 2 is the one people forget. The manual is explicit: after Pose as Rest Pose, the meshes deformed by the armature return to their undeformed state relative to the new rest pose. If the modifier has not been applied first, the armature switches to a T-pose and the mesh stays in an A-pose. The manual also warns that the operation may mean redoing the skinning, constraints, drivers and existing animations.

T-pose and Mixamo

Mixamo, the Adobe service that automatically rigs and animates humanoid characters, is a frequent reason to prepare a T-pose in Blender. Its FAQ asks for a biped character in a default or neutral pose, and warns that a character that is already posed or strongly asymmetrical may be rigged badly. It also advises placing the character at the origin of the scene and removing extra objects, such as cameras or markers. A clean T-pose meets these conditions. Uploads are made as FBX, OBJ or a ZIP archive.

On the way back, Blender imports the animated character with File > Import > FBX. The Ignore Leaf Bones option leaves out the last bone of each chain, which only marks the length of the previous bone. The Mixamo entry in our glossary (in French) presents the service and how to use it with Blender.

Common mistakes

• The arms deform badly after automatic rigging: they were too close to the torso, or the character was not symmetrical. Spread the arms in a T or an A before binding the mesh.
• The elbows or knees bend the wrong way: the limbs were perfectly straight in the rest pose. Add a slight bend, as Rigify asks.
• After Pose as Rest Pose, the mesh does not follow: the Armature modifier was not applied beforehand.
• The Rigify meta-rig does not match the size of the character: Rigify assumes that one unit equals one metre. Scale the character in Object Mode, apply the scale, then place the meta-rig.
• The animated pose comes back when you change frame: the pose was cleared without touching the keys. That is the normal behaviour; use Rest Position for a check.

What next

Once the character is rigged in a clean rest pose, the first animation to work on is usually the walk. The walk cycle in Blender guide starts from there: key poses, flipped copy and looping.