Transferring pose to three-dimensional characters is a common computer graphics task that typically involves transferring the pose of a reference avatar to a (stylized) three-dimensional character. Since three-dimensional characters are created by professional artists through imagination and exaggeration, and therefore, unlike human or animal avatars, have distinct shape and features, matching the pose of a three-dimensional character to that of a reference avatar generally requires manually creating shape information for the three-dimensional character that is required for pose transfer. The present disclosure provides for the automated transfer of a reference pose to a three-dimensional character, based specifically on a learned shape code for the three-dimensional character.