Hi hi, dudes, dudettes and all the Grand Prix animals on Steam.
Seriously, have any of you ever tried messing around with Manga making software like ComiPo or this one?
I’m looking for a good way to set up different poses for doll models / armatures. Sims is great for customizing look, but I’m more looking for something dynamic to give body positions, facial expressions, etc.
So is this kind of software a good way to go? Do you have any other suggestion for me please? 
What do you mean?
Anyway, I haven’t check that one, but a lot of people prefer Daz3D or Poser, and some use Make Human with Blender.
Personally speaking, I have a lil mannequin someone once give me, but usually, I’ll just draw the pose using pictures as a reference and see how it goes, if something seems off, I may use the fella, but is often easier to just do the pose myself :q
@Inferry Something like that yes - but I don’t have one of those mini mannies. Do have an old copy of Make Human.
I was hoping for something to help me understand how a model look say front, side, back, etc. I can’t sketch the ideas in my head very well in 3D. So was thinking make a software like the Manga maker, where you can turn the character around would help.
I was gifted a Figure Drawing Course last year which is good, but putting the form into a box to make the 3D profile doesn’t altogether make sense to me.
I see, well if you don’t wanna spend the money, both, Blender and Make Human are totes free, so it may pay to learn the basics of both, I swear is way easier than it looks.
The mannequin I have is similar to these ones:
https://www.amazon.com/AUKMONT-Action-Figures-Body-Kun-Body-Chan/dp/B078Y2B3MY/ref=pd_sbs_21_2/146-1085196-9200624?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B078Y2B3MY&pd_rd_r=0815f78f-a061-11e9-8437-9fa24f9c3242&pd_rd_w=AsMiH&pd_rd_wg=bZpUB&pf_rd_p=588939de-d3f8-42f1-a3d8-d556eae5797d&pf_rd_r=HW2WXKJV5THVG5SDAZBH&psc=1&refRID=HW2WXKJV5THVG5SDAZBH
It came with interchangeable hands, props, heads and… uh… proportions…
Any way, that set is quite expensive, but there are others that are around the $20 price or lower.
But I’m afraid to say, this is a matter of practice, the more you draw the basic shapes the easier it will become to picture that stuff in your head.
Good news is, there are several ways to the same end, one thing you can do is getting pictures of people and draw the basic shapes over them, concentrate on individual parts instead of the whole.
Figure drawing is another thing to do the stuff, find people or pics and just draw them, plenty of tutorials out there, just pay attention as to why does the body looks the way it does.
Try to avoid learning from others drawings thou, there’s nothing wrong with them per se for posing, but if the artist has mistakes, you will inherit those mistakes as well, not to mention that in the case of style you may not know why a body part looks the way it does.
Another thing that may help you a lot, is learning anatomy, Proko has a good bunch of videos on the topic, with very detailed explanations as to way body parts look the way they look like,
But in the end, is just practice I’m afraid.
Yup, I know of Proko and he’s a pretty good teacher. 
Also know of those figures, but I’m not always sure which are the fake vs real ones, esp. from scanning Ebay. Shipping anything from China to here takes about 2 months, but the shipping is usually free instead of O_o.
Blender is super free, steep learning curve (from what I remember from reading the online tutorials, and I never could run it before - likely still can’t on the current machine.
This is the course I’ve got on Steam:
Started using it on Riven’s own website. Not sure if you know of him too?
More practice could well help with the 3D aspect of what I’ve been trying to represent, currently just tossing out ideas, hoping for suggestions of another way to tackle it. I’m very technical when it comes to craft, so just “winging it” has never been my thing. I dunno, maybe I presented my question badly…
You cannot run Blender? that thing can run on a toaster, maybe a second chance?
How about making a little sculpture of the body part your self? using some clay you can follow the instructions on how to draw X part to build the thing, is what I did for learning the head when I was starting.
What sort of clay did you use? Craft places here don’t sell every kind there is, supply and demand, yada yada.
I don’t know how it’s really called in english but is the cheap clay kids get for school projects and such, I didn’t sculp it in super detail, just the basic shape and kinda small to get a basic idea of the whole thing.
You can save on some by using a ball of paper or something else to do the center of the shape, and then just cover it with the thing, and you can use news paper as a towel to remove it from your hands once you are done.
@Pylinaer Oh, well you can wait for that I guess.
Don’t laugh, but I’ve never in my life played with Play-Doh - just heard of it. O_O Should be able to find that somewhere. That one above I’d have to order in and ship or get someone travelling to bring in. Hm.
I saw a store with little blocks of an air dry kind of clay a while back - long walk so I don’t go there often - would that do just as well?
Make your own…here is one of the best recipes.
Or just search for “recipe for play doh” 
The first one, in Mexico is called ‘plastilina’ regardless of brand so I wasn’t sure what name it had, so I just call it clay.
Play-Doh isn’t good for it because it has some elasticity, so whatever you do with it is gonna slightly lose it’s shape.
Honestly, any clay that can keep its shape will do, so just go for the cheapest you can find.
Speaking of Play-Doh, and this is totally off topic, can I get some help? wen I was a kid, around the 90s, I remember these toys that where like those Micro Machine or Polly Pocket sets.
One had the shape of a car, and once open it would have a tiny little track inside, and it also had little molding presses, where you put some clay on it and you would get a tiny car to play with the track, the other one was that of a monster face, same gimmick.
I don’t think they where Play-Doh thou, since I remember the clay it came with was mean to harden after a little while.
@delenn13 Everything easy except cream of tartar - will have to check out one of the snazzier supermarkets for that one. Thanks.
Substitute fresh lemon juice or white vinegar for the cream of tartar
For every 1/2 teaspoon of cream of tartar in the recipe, use 1 teaspoon lemon juice or white vinegar.
Super! Can easily do. Thanks. It’s not an item common in baking and such locally.
