Human shoulders are overly-broad

Hello all!

I am making a character that will be rendered out in low-resolution (meaning, the model doesn’t have to be perfect). However, the better-looking the model, the better the results. The issue that I currently have at hand is that the model’s shoulders are far too broad; in essence, the actual length on top of the shoulders is way too long.


By the picture above, it looks great in side view and pretty good in top view, but terrible in front view. When the arm is outstretched, though, it looks good. Is there anything I can do to fix this issue?

Any help is appreciated. Thank you!

Have you looked for stock references of how it should look? I have not studied these things in depth, but it looks fine to me FOR THAT POSE. But, the pose looks very unnatural. When moving the arm forward like that, usually the entire shoulder will rotate forward and inward. Basically, the shoulder is not rigidly attached to the torso. Think of the shoulder as being attached to the torso by by the collar bone. This would place the pivot point near the top of the sternum.

I don’t think it’s an issue as such. As in something unexpected.

It could be more to do with the mesh construction and possibly the joint locations. So what does it look like in a more neutral pose? Where the arms would be in a resting position by the side.

And don’t forget to check in perspective mode. Ortho is great for editing or working with a reference. But eventually perspective mode is where you’ll be spending most of your time for rendering/animating/posing. Ortho can tend to give you a false sense of proportion.