Manikin Reviews

I like Manikin well enough, it can be finicky and confusing, but I’ve used it before to the point that I decided to buy the objects so I could work on hand positions.

The hands are gigantic, don’t fit on the model, can’t be resized, and even if you manage to resize the model to fit the hands and adjust the light and everything else, they still don’t work or attach to the model in any way.

The website says “uniform scale” (resizing) can be used on any object, but this isn’t true for hands at least. The search box for help topics gives zero results for hands. The tutorial section titled “hands” links to a 404 error.

I paid $8 for access to a model with fingers and other hand details, or a way to attach them to the model. Not only am I out $8, but I also wasted a bunch of time trying to find some kind of remotely helpful support for Manikin.

The free version itself is fine, by this point there are probably better options but it’s worth a try. Just be warned before you spend $ to unlock anything else that Manikin only has giant, bodiless, severed hands available.

If I could go back in time, I wouldn’t pay to unlock the full app; in fact, I would have not used it again at all. Since buying it months ago, I’ve tried using it twice. I say “tried” because it is not intuitive, even with the words for some of the functions. I’m nowhere near a novice when it comes to computers and apps (I grew up using them), but the icons don’t always do a great job of explaining what the functions do (yes, I did the tutorial, but I feel like I need to do it again to remember), and the motions are janky when you want to adjust them, even when using an Apple Pencil in an attempt to get smoother responses.

It’s not at all fun to use, and, worst of all, I just spent several minutes getting my figure just the way I want it, but when I attempted to do a screenshot, it crashed! So, all my work was for nothing. There was a different, similar tool like this that made me stumble on this one, but there’s no iPad app for it, so I got this alternative. I regret it.

Has a lot of great features but major things holding it back. For one is the UI. This UI does not feel or function in a modern simplified way. It’s also not elegant or pleasing to the eye. So you have both a UI and UX issue holding the software back from being truly great. The UI and UX is poor. The models should also have posable hands and fingers option, and when using the stick figure mode when multiple models are in the camera the other should not change to black making it impossible to see! You guys have implemented a lot of things I have wanted to see in a 3D reference app, and it has a lot of big potential. If you fix some of these things it can be great. Should also consider adding models made up of boxes only.

I absolutely love Manikin it is so useful with the hands and my favorite is posing a skeleton. The only thing I think could be improved is when you’re moving the cameras angles, because weirdly it moves in the opposite direction you want to go so if you’re scrolling down it goes up. and it gets frustrating when I nearly move it or try to zoom in and then just goes off the page and I cannot recenter it. wish it was easier to move the camera around without its freaking out.

I do believe it deserves four stars but it has a lot of cons, first they should make this easier to use for beginner artists because I believe people starting out in the community should probably have better accessibility but whatever. Second they should make it easier to use in general I’m pretty good with this platform but I feel like they could definitely updated because it’s like a beta version. But I believe if you’ve been doing art for a while you are completely capable of using this.<3

I really like Manikin it does exactly what I need it to do though the camera feels wrong. Even after messing around with the camera settings. Almost as though there the opposite of moving the canvas in an art app. It also seems the horizontal camera toggle is broken and isn’t doing anything.

All that being said, I bought the full version of Manikin because I’m finding Manikin helpful for posing characters before drawing. And being able to get an idea of distance between objects.

I would recommend, those I just wish the camera controls felt more natural.

Manikin is really excellent. I’m trying to understand how the human body works and looks like, and I’m able to lay out poses using Manikin. What I’m envisioning, this helps bring to life. Unfortunately, I’m unable to find the pictures folder that my screenshots are supposedly saved to. I’d also love if you could add a couple more items for free (just basic things such as a plain chair and table would be nice, or other basic figures.) I’d aLao really appreciate if you could add knuckles and fingers for the hands, and a bit more detail on the foot joints as well. Other than that, Manikin is so incredibly useful and has already improved my art.

I got Manikin thinking I could do short movies with it because it showed on the video that you can take pictures and make it into a moving picture. But sadly when I downloaded it I never saw any button or anything showing you can make an animation. So I did some research and from what I understood it says you can’t. I got very confused because the video said you could! But overall this is a very useful app! The introduction is very simple and short which I really like because some apps have super long intros that are hard to understand and remember! It’s so fun making poses and very useful for artists who need reference poses. But for me I don’t need that so it gets boring after a while and I would keep Manikin for maybe even years and years if you could make a short movie!

The whole reason I got it was for that so it would be a more amazing app if you could maybe make animals or buildings for free and all these things would be so useful if you could make a movie. But I know it’s very hard to add these things and I don’t expect the developers to add any of these things but I really do think Manikin could be on another level of good if you could make a movie. It could be a game that all ages would get and have a blast!

Please I really have not found a free game that can make a movie easily! I have had Manikin for literally for about 20 minutes so I’m not sure if these things are even available. I love Manikin though it’s so much fun!

I love Manikin. It’s helped me on so many projects—structuring scenes and anatomy-ing correctly—it’s unbelievable. However, I have one request: can you add mobility items? I’m a wheelchair/forearm crutch user and making sure the models are applied directing with the equipment is a battle. Even if the equipment is basic/standard, it’ll help getting the idea and interaction with the model(s). I know I can use the blocks and such but, honestly, it takes a lot of time…every time. I save and preload the block models but if I accidently move one, I’ve destoryed the purpose of the model. It’s a tiring process but I love Manikin and respect the creators who made it happen. Creators, thank you and a have a wonderful day!

I love Manikin so much. It gives you so many controls and ways to modify the this app! However I would like a couple things.

I would like to scale the limbs in order to make different body type models. Lets say I wanted to scale the head to make a cartoonish character. Maybe I want to modify the chest as well! I think allowing people to customize the models would be great! As long as you can find a way to do it. Also, I would like to add some sort of animal model, like a horse or a dog or something. I wanna see unlimited possibilities with the models of Manikin, and I'm sure other artists do too.

Anyways, Manikin is overall really good! I hope to see further updates in the near future! If you guys are reading this, thank you so much for creating Manikin, it helps a lot of artists like me develop their art skills.

So Manikin certainly has the potential to be a great use for pose development in drawing but there are some major issues with the models and controls. Starting with the models, I know that the classic wooden mannequin has a certain charm to it but it is one of the worst models to use for any kind of accuracy in joint movement and proportions. It is just about useless if you are doing anything that needs clear anatomical landmarks. I had hoped the skeleton model would take care of some of those issues, however, the pelvis is too large and chunky and the connection to the sacrum is incorrect. The controls for the skeleton have no limiters and deform way too much in the rib cage and pelvis.

The controls in general are not elegant or clear. The sliders and arrows don’t make logical sense when you select a part. However, I do appreciate the reverse kinematics when simply grabbing an extremity like the hand or foot, and the handles for the knees and elbows is nice but the as well.

This is exactly what I need and what I have been looking for so many years. I use this for reference pictures for animations, it helps so much to get the right pose down. The ability to scrub the Video helps so much to understand how it works for a specific movement and lets you see where and how much the axis is moving. Having the full version is a must for anyone that wants to be able to break down and fully understand how a animation works so you can apply it to whatever you want. Great job to everyone that has worked on this, keep up the great work!

This is a brilliant app. I’ve recently begun learning how to draw and I use this for reference for proportions all the time. I absolutely LOVE the movement videos in the Animation Library. That’s my FAVOURITE feature. I would like to see more poses & videos in the A.L. (I notice there are no pose videos for lying down; will we see that at some point?) I’d love to see poses for more actions (driving a car, eating, etc).
If you ever considered finding a way to add options for how to model facial expressions, that would be awesome too. Maybe also options for drawing animals?

The model is a bit difficult to move by hand, but gets easier using the control tools. I’d also like to request that you make it easier to move by hand. Also, if I want to add 2+ models in a scene, they all appear one on top of each other instead of next to or around each other. Then when I try to move one, I end up moving the wrong one and my carefully maneuvered pose is gone. :/

I’d give Manikin a 4.5/5. It would be a 10/5 if moving around the this app by hand was easier and we had even more options for poses under the Animation Library. But so far so good 👍🏽

This has to be the best figure drawing app ever. I seen different toys that you can configure. I even have a little Spider-Man figurine at home that can be moved around to show different poses. This beats them all. I’m going to share this with everyone who is an artist of any kind. Discovering this app basically opened up my mind to all other things I’ll be doing as an artist. I instantly thought super hero comic book once I saw it. Then I thought, I wonder if I can change the size of the figure? YOU CAN!!! If you having the imagination, this app will allow you to create a limitless amount of possibilities.

The title pretty much says it all. After a very few hours of practice, setting up poses and then developing derivative poses becomes quick and straight forward. The scant instructions provide just enough of an introduction to allow the first time user to start experimenting. And experimenting is key to this app user happiness. There are some slight glitches during viewpoint changes, or I have not yet discovered how to place my ft thumbs appropriately, but that is at worst a slight annoyance, more of a challenge to work carefully. (Implementing on an iPhone 8+... so far.)

Ok, first off, WOW. I love this. It is perfect for me and im so happy that i can stop googling references now. But I do have one small request if possible, that would make this literally my favorite tool ever: Digitigrade leg toggle. Im an artist who centers a lot around animalistic humans or humanoid animals, and digitigrade legs sometimes throw me off a bit, so having a toggle to be able to pose these types of legs on a person, completely uniquely, would make things so much easier for me, and i bet multiple other artists would agree, because lets be honest, digitigrade legs are just cool. But If you can’t, that’s fine! This is still overall an incredible tool!

I’ve had the lite version for awhile now, stowed away in my art reference folder, I’m only recently noticing how much free animations there are, I’ve finally decided to buy the full version and I have no regrets.

The controls for the mannequins are easy once you grasp the concept and far easier then dragging the poor mannequin around like a rag doll, and I love the simple snapping for the objects to hold in the mannequins hands.

There are a wide variety of objects including weapons, shields, bows, guns, tables and chairs, ect.

I would definitely recommend Manikin to any artist who can’t find that perfect pose on google.

I’d like to suggest some more mannequins, like animals, house cats and dogs would be ideal, also, some objects like laptops and phones. And a game controller.

Thank you for making such a brilliant and helpful app for everyone!

Btw, the hand poser is a lifesaver, lol!

Jaywood,C.M.K.

It is very easy to use and the developers made it very cool with no ads or anything. I was wondering if there was any way that you could delete a this app? It wasn't very clear in the tutorial. I was also wondering if you could go over the reset button in the tutorial more. That would be really helpful. I love Manikin by the way and I'm so glad that you care about what people think about you game. Another suggestion that I have is to let us import backgrounds into the picture. Thank you for reading this!

I just wanted a cheap way to make pose references, but Manikin is incredible! Props, furniture, animations, not to mention no matter how much I mess with the poses they always look natural!

The one thing I would change is that there are only 3 human models, which makes group shots a bit bland when they are all the same height/body shape. Some sliders or options for height, weight, face shape, etc would be appreciated, but this is already way more than I could of asked for!

Love Manikin! It’s super easy to use and understand. The controls are precise and not overly sensitive which makes other posing apps tedious and time consuming to use. There’s a decent amount of props to choose from including a good selection of weapons which makes my life as a comic creator sooo much easier.

There’s two main mannequins to choose from. One is large and quite lanky while the other is small and has more childlike proportions (which is great for anime/cartoons). You can adjust the overall size of the mannequins including their individual body parts so it makes it easy to accommodate for your art style.

I would be cool if there were more props to choose from and the process of saving and loading scenes is a little strange, but overall I’d say it’s $8 well spent.