I am a semi-professional writer looking for a way to add some illustrations to my stories. I really do not need the high end 3D models and would actually prefer a 2D solution. My goal is to create some actors and some specific backgrounds/environments to add single static images to my writing. Dressing and posing the actors would be nice, but again I do not need intricate tricksey high end results. Just basic posing. The focus here is in the writing. But I do want to add some "faces" to my stories, both in the human actors and the environment. I'm sure people know what I'm getting at, like any number of novels that include occasional full page images to help color the story. Unfortunately I am no illustrator. Do any of the programs from Reallusion fit this need? I'm actually quite surprised that this one request isn't much more popular. It is something I have desired for over a decade. I would be more than willing to purchase but would need to know if my needs could be met first. Thanks!

There's been a number of users that have created graphic novels over the years using iClone, but none have posted recently that I know of. Hopefully, some see this post and will respond. I will have to search a bit to find some examples.

I'm an iClone user, so I'm biased, but I think iClone would give you more flexibility to create interesting illustrations. 

I did an animated comic some time ago (I used iClone 6):



So this involved posing the various characters, which is easy to do in iClone. I also like to use iClone, because of the way I can build up scenery and environments. For static illustrations, you could also use an image as background and place your character and any props in there:



For heads, there is a head pack you can buy, which gives you 100 faces of various age groups. You can also create them yourself but that requires extra software.

So this is my 3D angle. I hope others will chime in and add to this and will also give you some insight how to approach this in 2D, which I know little about.

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First you'll have to decide on the overall "look" you seek, but I participated in the same "community project" as Animagic where we made a "graphic novel" (comic book) style video, and several of us used iClone to create still images.

I really enjoyed the project, and it is one of my favorites of the projects I've created.  The ability to pose the character and change the camera angle in iClone was great, even though I knew the ultimate result would be a 2D still image.

When in doubt, make use of the free trial for iClone.  Play with some standard (included) characters and sample sets, just to get a feel for the software, knowing you will be able to customize everything later.

Here is my video:

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iClone 7... Character Creator... Substance Designer/Painter... Blender... Audacity...
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