Show HN: I made a 3D pose maker for artists

augustvdv 77 points 30 comments May 19, 2026
setpose.com · View on Hacker News

Discussion Highlights (12 comments)

lagrange77

Very cool idea, congrats on the launch!

virtualritz

No inverse kinematics? That is the most important feature this would make me use this over the good old wooden puppet, which is small (10cm). I.e. it travels with me with my drawing utensils. I guess I am asking: what exactly is the value proposition?

delichon

Though the internet is for porn, this does not seem to support genital or secondary sexual characteric contributions to a pose. I respect the bold approach but doubt that it will discourage much use of this tool by that community.

GlacierFox

What's up with the pricing? $7 per month for 'pro' or 20 for pro +. You can buy an actual real life manekin you can use forever for 10. Who's going to pay monthly for this? Who even is the target market. If you're comfortable enough with 3D meshes to make use of the 3D export function in the paid subscription, you could just download a manekin into Blender and do all this for free.

miguel-muniz

As much as I would like to use this, $7/month seems like a lot when Clip Studio Paint has similar 3D pose tools[1] and a marketplace full of free models/poses for $4.49/month. Plus you get an entire professional art program... [1] https://www.clipstudio.net/en/characterart/#:~:text=Learn%20...

islammidov

look interesting, but not sure price make this worth that

Fraterkes

Looks really polished. My one point would be that I would consider making the default model a realistic mannequin (or ecorche if you have it). I get you're saving that for pro, but I think that would make it more obviously appealing for people studying anatomy / perspective (which might be a bigger market than pros looking for pose-reference for illustration work). Having the abstract mannequin as a default may make people feel like they might as well just buy one of those wooden posing dolls ( https://www.amazon.com/wooden-mannequin/s?k=wooden+mannequin ).

felooboolooomba

What about male genitalia and woman's breasts? That's a perfectly valid and much drawn part of the human anatomy.

raincole

If you want something out of box for free you can use Blender and download rigged models here: https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/rigged-characters-482b7772d3... . Or find poses and animations from https://www.mixamo.com . Or you can use Houdini's free version, it comes with a fully-rigged mannequin and a realistic proportioned human. You can't export them in free version but if you're a 2D artist you can just screenshot and use it as a reference. Houdini has everything from full-body muscle simulation to writing a OpenCL image processing kernel there. All free if screenshot-as-export is acceptable in your use cases. If you need actual rendering it's $25/mo billed annually. This website's pro plus subscription is $15/mo. (Not saying there is no room for another tool. Just stating the alternatives.)

marknutter

The range of motion seems very limited. These dummies need to take a yoga class or two.

photonair

This looks like a fantastic resource for artists who find traditional wooden mannequins a bit too limiting for complex anatomy. I particularly appreciate the inclusion of the "Timed Drawing Challenge," as consistent gesture practice is such a vital part of improving one's craft. Additionally, the option to toggle biological constraints is a very clever touch for those working on more expressive or stylized character designs.

thot_experiment

I've wanted a reliable tool like this for the longest time because I'd like to be able to draw arbitrary poses off my phone if I'm just sketching on the train and I'm having trouble visualizing how a shadow would fall or something. I of course would never pay a subscription for it, that's absurdist comedy. What I want is github pages page you can ctrl+s and keep forever, might just put my money where my mouth is on that one too. I've got a lot of three.js under my belt and local models have made me unreasonably bold.

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