Can you create a character for animation, rig the character, and then use the various poses for animation and 3d printing or do you have to create two separate characters one rigged for animation and one static one for 3d printing?
1 Answer
There should be no problem using a rigged character for 3D printing, assuming the character's mesh is suitable for printing (no holes, no non-manifold geometry, consistent normals pointing in the right direction, correct scale, etc).
To make sure all is prepared, you can make a copy of each pose to a new duplicate model, apply the Armature Modifier and delete the armature object (to clean up the scene), run printability tests via the 3D Printing Toolbox addon or an external program (Netfabb, Meshmixer, etc) and export your STL.