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Figure drawing has long been a struggle for artists. No pose is the same and it can be hard to visualize the specific ways the human body twists and turns to assume a pose. While established artists may have the resources to hire people to model for them, this isn't a realistic option for most aspiring professional artists or hobbyists.
To address this problem, wooden drawing dolls or "mannequins" were made by and for these artists to help them accurately visualise human poses. The artist can adjust each of the hinged limbs to their liking, the same way human limbs would move.
Wooden drawing doll compared to the SetPose Pro model
The problem with these mannequins is that they aren't very accurate and they lack a lot of detail. They can certainly be very useful to get started with a quick sketch and get a rough idea of the lighting and shadows but that's it. Luckily there are lots of better options now that are much more detailed, reflect anatomy accurately and provide many more useful features. This is a list of the best pose makers for artists.
SetPose is your best option if you're looking for a pose maker that combines realism with ease-of-use. SetPose is known for its intuitive controls and the many presets and props that are tailor-made for the SetPose model.
Adjusting the SetPose Pro model
SetPose's controls are as intuitive as adjusting a wooden drawing doll because you can adjust the limbs by simply dragging them to your desired position. All other pose makers use so-called "gizmo controls" that are made for 3D software but don't match well with human pose makers with lots of joints that overlap and move in all directions. With SetPose, there's no need to learn complex controls as you just grab the part you wish to move as you would with a real mannequin.
Another major benefit of SetPose is the natural limitations of the models. Turned on by default, the "biological constraints"-setting, only lets you move joints in ways the human joint would move. In other pose makers for example, the forearm and lower leg move 360 degrees in any direction, which makes for some very unnatural-looking poses if you aren't careful. SetPose's limitations (which you can always turn off, if needed) allow you to effortlessly create more accurate poses.
Besides the simple models that are available for free for all SetPose users, there's also an option to use the ultra-realistic models, available for pro-members. These models use the same intuitive controls and are made to reflect human anatomy as realistic as possible.
Open the SetPose Pose Maker
Besides SetPose, there are lots of other alternative pose makers. While most work in the same principle, there are some differences to point out.
JustSketchMe may be one of the more well known pose makers as they have been around for years and are still used by many artists. When opening JustSketchMe, you enter the 3D environment and are greeted with a simple 3D model. By default you get access to a couple of these simple models in different age-ranges with the option to upgrade and access more detailed ones.
The many different controls can make the editor hard to use for beginners and, judging from website's the roadmap, JustSketchMe doesn't seem to be in development anymore since 2022.
Magic Poser works a bit differently than most of the pose makers in this list. The model is loaded with draggable spheres on each joint which you can drag around. Using inverse kinematics it then tries to calculate the appropriate movement direction of the body part. While at first it seems easier to use than the gizmo controls of other pose makers, in reality it is hard to get a body part to move in the direction you wish it to go.
PoseMyArt works much in the same way as JustSketchMe does but it does offer a more detailed model than the one you get in JustSketchMe's free version. The other advantage is the inverse kinematics controls that make the model a bit easier to control. You have to be careful however, as the lack of natural limitations make it easy to get the body parts tangled up inside each other.
Manikin is a downloadable app for iPhone, Android, Mac and Windows. It has a clean UI and tries to replicate the wooden drawing model in the way it works. This means the model is quite simple but also easy to quickly set up according to your liking.
Figurosity is quite different from all the other pose makers in this list. They don't provide you with a model that you can adjust yourself but offer a long list of premade poses of realistic 3D models. While you aren't able to get a full 360 3D view of these models, you can look around the models in most angles in image form.