Interesting Tool: Manniquin

I do have the secret desire to make a visual novel one of these days. I also have the desire to have a visual representation of some of my characters on file. The problem? I’m bad at drawing people. The solution I found? A digital tool called “Mannequin”.
There are several of my creations throughout this post. Enjoy them!

“Mannequin” is still in early access on Steam and itch.io, so there are bugs and problems that can arise. I’ve experienced a couple of them, but most are avoidable once you know what you’re getting yourself into. Save early, safe often — if you keep that in mind, things won’t get too bad. That, however, is something which can happen with every piece of software in early access (and these days also with other pieces of software, if we’re being honest here).
I had to force the program to shut down a few times and the clothing department is lacking some stuff I’d love to have (everything outside of a school, office, or beach setting), such as something that can double as military fatigues (for two characters from the Knight Agency I made). That is very specific, though, and I doubt many people will miss it.
Yet, it is early access and more stuff will most likely come — with the Steam Workshop, if not in other ways. It’s already possible to make quite a range of different characters, so it’s fine. All of them will look like they’re right out of an anime, but that’s what this tool is about.

 

[Jane]

Apart from the growing pains and still limited content, the tool is excellent. I bought it and jumped in, finding it easy to work with it. Yes, there are a few things I discovered more or less by accident, but I got the main parts figured out easily enough. Accessibility is a big thing when it comes to software — if you have to spend hours upon hours learning how to use a tool (as you might have with a complex and powerful one like CC3+), it’s going to put quite some people off that tool. In addition, the tool does have online documentation which can be called up from within the program, so you can access your manual when you need it.
“Mannequin” doesn’t fall into the trap of too much complexity, it provides easy access and you see changes immediately. The instant feedback makes it easy to understand how the program works and to do things at will with it. Character creation is quick and easy and once you’ve got a character, you can save it within the program, then export pictures in three different formats to use them elsewhere, changing the poses and the facial expressions as you want and need.

 

[Steven]

Like this, making a set of characters for a visual novel — a plan I am following at the moment —, isn’t hard at all. You can copy and past colour hex-codes to make sure the school uniforms of all your characters have the same colour scheme and you have free choice of colours. There are presets, such as hair and skin colours, you can use, but nothing stops you from choosing your own colours for that. Like this, a fish girl or a fire demon are not impossible at all — especially with different ear types beyond the human one (including cat, dog, bunny, and fox ears).
Using “Mannequin”, which is made by only one person, hence the slow development, I’m also wondering why the “Visual Novel Maker” I bought a long while ago doesn’t have a similar tool, as the same company which sells it also does sell the “RPG Maker” which has something not too unlike it to make sprites and faces for characters.

[Cynthia]

For me, “Mannequin” is a great tool to use. I can add character pictures to my series, reminding me at one glance of the look of my characters (although Isadora and Gabrielle, who are both on the androgynous side, might be a bit of a challenge and I can’t give Gabrielle’s cousin Abigail appropriate clothing). I can finally make a visual novel (I’m already in the planning process for it).
I also do generally like to play around with such programs to figure out new characters or just have some fun.

I hope that the program will get more content through the Steam Workshop (such as more different body types and clothing) and I hope that it will be finished at some point, even if it takes a while. It’s a one-person project, so not something that might be done in a hurry. Yet, I have hopes when it comes to this one and it is useful for me already.