user: Describe Creating a Pose Library from the Blender manual or Python API, including usage steps and snippets.

assistant: A pose library is a bunch of actions that exist in blend-files of an
[Asset Library](../../../../files/asset_libraries/introduction.xhtml#what-is-asset-library). Such blend-files can either be
created manually, or by exporting poses to a library.
If a pose asset is created by exporting to a library, a [.asset.blend](../../../../files/asset_libraries/introduction.xhtml#asset-system-files)
file will be created for it which will contain just that one asset, and which cannot be opened
as a normal blend file to modify it.
Otherwise there is no restriction on how many pose assets can be contained
in a blend-file. It is also possible to link in a character, props, etc.,
which can then not only be used to create the poses,
but also for [rendering previews](#poselib-preview-images).

[image reference removed]

Example pose library of the Sprite Fright character Ellie.

### Pose Creation

To create a pose in the library from the Action Editor, **pose the character,
select the relevant bones**, and click the *Create Pose Asset* button. The same option
is available in the 3D Viewport while in Pose Mode under the *Pose* menu.
This will create the new pose action, which will contain keys for the current value of
each bone’s location, rotation, scale, and Bendy Bone properties.
It doesn’t matter if the character is animated or not, so you can easily create pose assets
from existing animation.
You can even create a pose asset containing bones of two or more different armatures.
To do so, put the armatures in pose mode and select the bones you want to add to the asset.
Clicking the *Create Pose Asset* button will then still create a single action,
but with separate [slots](../../../actions.xhtml#animation-actions-slots) for each armature.

[image reference removed]

To create a new pose asset, use the Create Pose Asset button in the Action editor.

If the “Current File” library is chosen, the action is created in the current blend file
and marked as an Asset. If another library is chosen, the pose is extracted
and a new [.asset.blend](../../../../files/asset_libraries/introduction.xhtml#asset-system-files) file is created containing the action.

In case the pose asset has been created in the current file, it can be renamed in the *Asset Browser*.
There you can also right click on the thumbnail, then choose
*Assign Action* to assign the action to the active Object (see description above).

### Pose Creation by Copying from Other File

As described in [Design Limitations](../../../../files/asset_libraries/introduction.xhtml#asset-libraries-design-limitations), Blender only writes
data to the currently open blend-file or to an [.asset.blend](../../../../files/asset_libraries/introduction.xhtml#asset-system-files) file.
To copy a pose from some other file into a pose library file, see the following steps:

- Pose the character and select the relevant bones.
- Click the **Copy Pose as Asset button**, which is available in the Action Editor. This will create the pose asset
  (including its thumbnail) and store it in a temporary file somewhere.
- Choose an existing pose asset, and open its context menu. Click the **Open Blend File** option.
- A new Blender process will start, and automatically open the asset library
  file that contains the chosen pose. By the way, this works for all assets, not just poses!
- In the Asset Browser, click the **Paste as New Asset button**. This will load that temporary file,
  and load all the assets it can find in there. In our case, it will only find a single pose,
  but future versions of Blender may extend this for other asset types.
  This is why the button is named so generically – it is not pose-specific.
- Give the pose a name, and click on the “refresh” button in the preview image panel
  to render a new preview if you want.
- **Save the file and quit Blender**.
- The original Blender is still running in the background and notices that the new Blender has quit.
  It **automatically refreshes the Asset Browser** to show the newly added pose.

### Controlling the Look of Preview Images

The pose library preview images are rendered with the active [Scene camera](../../../../scene_layout/scene/properties.xhtml#bpy-types-scene-camera).
This approach was preferred over rendering a specific 3D Viewport for two main reasons:

- There is only one scene camera active at any time, making it predictable which camera is used.
- The camera, as well as the rest of the scene, can be set up specifically for rendering the thumbnails.
  Pose library files are intended for that purpose: to contain the poses and render their preview images.

The preview images are rendered using the [Workbench Engine](../../../../render/workbench/index.xhtml).
Switch the scene to use that as render engine, and you’ll see various options to influence the look.
Select a pose asset and press the Generate Preview button to re-render the preview image with the current settings.

You can also animate settings such as MatCap rendering, light positions, and intensities, etc.
Use this to your advantage!