Merrimo User Guide › Cast and world

Pick poses and expressions for characters on Mac

In Merrimo on your Mac, you can choose from a library of expressive poses, facial expressions, and camera orientations to direct your characters in every panel.

Choose character poses

Stage body language to communicate emotion, tension, and action:

1. Select a character node in a panel and open the Pose & Action section in the Inspector (⌥⌘I).
2. In a panel's References, click the character's tile, then click its Pose field. A grid of pose thumbnails opens over the field; poses already made for this character show a Made badge.
3. Type to search the grid, then click a pose (or press Return). Click None to clear it. If the pose isn't made yet, click Generate under the fields to make it.
4. Drag the limb joints or head direction indicator to adjust the staging.

Select facial expressions and head turns

Deliver subtle emotional performances with facial dials:

1. Click the character's Expression field and pick an emotion from the grid that opens over it (such as Determined, Shocked, Playful, or Melancholy).
2. Use the Intensity slider to dial between subtle reaction and dramatic exaggeration.
3. Use the Face Aim compass to orient where the character is looking: toward another character, off-screen, or breaking the fourth wall.

In a panel's References, a character with both a Pose and an Expression is one image: the pose wearing the expression. Until that image is made, the field says Expression not applied yet; click Generate to make it (the pose is made first if it isn't yet). The character's inspector lists these under Poses with Expressions in its Poses grid, where you can walk each one's versions or make it again. Selecting any pose there previews it as the window's large picture; it doesn't replace the character's image. Click a take below the picture, click the pose again, or leave Poses to end the preview. An expression picked without a pose shows as a tile of its own, the character's face.

To take a reference out, click its tile, then click the trash button at the top right of its card, or Control-click the tile. On an expression's tile, that clears the expression.