For me this is one of the most interesting and engaging aspects of animating. Creating a pose that communicates what your character is feeling and what the energy in that character is doing is when the actor within us gets to come out and play. Its when we get to tap into our inner child a make believe. Communicating energy and emotion with your character has so much more to do with physical pose than the facial expression you put on your character.
When making decisions about a characters pose we are exploring deeply ingrained instinct from the human mind, scientists say that we get 55% of our impression of someone from their body language, 38% from the tone, speed and inflection of the voice and only 7% from what is actually said. When creating drama the poses you choose are the most powerful tool at your disposal, when they are used well the result is simply magical.
LINKS:
Larry's Toon Institute with a very basic overview of posing.
Keith Lango's BRILLIANT video tutorials on posing. A must see for any learning character animator. Part1. Part2.
My illustrated notes on posing characters for animation.
Shape of Action.
Cameron Fielding on the power of Pyramids.
Shawn Kelly on Twinning.
Keith Lango on posing with power centers
Victor Navone looks at some live action reference on posing.
Thoughts on making your character poses mean something.
Posing hands. Part1. Part2
Carlos Baena on posing characters and laying out a shot to show their status in a scene.
From a site called IK boost, a great article on character posing.
A post from friend of the ARC Alonso with some great tips on understanding how the body moves.
