Manga Studio

[Professor Bear]

Still putting off getting to grips with Illustrator, never mind Manga Studio

To this day don't have a clue how to use Illustrator to do even the most basic stuff I can do in photoshop, despite working in a small design firm for over a year with nothing but Illustrator.

Learning MS now on top of Illustrator catchup?  Fuck that.

[Jim_Campbell]

Learning MS now on top of Illustrator catchup?  Fuck that.

Can't speak for anyone else, but Manga Studio has actually turned inking from being something I detested doing to a part of the art process in which I take genuine pleasure*. Add to that the brain-melting ease with which you can build perpsective grids and the fact that you can use any of the drawing/shape tools to create rulers and I'd strongly argue that it's worth the effort.

(And that's before I've got to grips with the panel creation tools, which both Dylan and PJ have mentioned, so I really must RTFM.)

Cheers!

Jim

* Note that this is not the same as actually being good at it.

[dyl]

I'd recommend Manga Studio for Dummies, it's like the manual that should have come with the software.

[SuperSurfer]

I really enjoy drawing in Photoshop using a Wacom tablet. It reminds me of the feel of drawing and painting on animation cels (there he goes showing his age again). But this MS is getting plenty of recommendations. Now, should I or shouldn't I?

In better days I wouldn't have hesitated in going for this offer. But I am needing to upgrade my Adobe programmes from CS2 to CS4 and we are talking a painful £800 plus. 

[pauljholden]

I'll point out my blog where I compare Photoshop and Manga Studio, for those that missed it before:

http://www.pauljholden.com/blog/2009/12/10/manga-studio-vs-photoshop-part-1/

-pj

[Jim_Campbell]

Now, should I or shouldn't I?

30-day full trial on the Smith Micro site, plus the "Debut" version is only £30 (the subsequent upgrade to the EX version from Debut saves you about £40 on the full purchase price of EX, even when you count in the cost of Debut) if you don't want to shell out a chunk of cash right now.

Cheers

Jim

[radiator]

Might give this a look when the new Mac arrives.

[Emperor]

Manga Studio web seminar, with.... Dave Gibbons (2000 AD even gets a mention), March 21st 2pm Pacific Time:

www.smithmicro.com/mangawebinar/

[Emperor]

Video of Dave Gibbons drawing using Manga Studio:

http://lewstringer.blogspot.com/2010/03/dave-gibbons-at-work.html

[James]

Having installed the demo, I'm really struggling to gel with this. I tried doing some inking, but the lines I draw seem to 'preview' as a thick single weighted line until I finish drawing it, making it difficult to judge pen pressure and what the final result will look like.

Does that make any sense to anyone? And does anyone know of a way to change it?

Cheers,

J

[Jim_Campbell]

Does that make any sense to anyone? And does anyone know of a way to change it?

From the sounds of it, you have one or both of the "Stroke In" and "Stroke Out" options selected -- these add a taper to the beginning and end of your strokes regardless of the pressure settings of your tablet and the actual pressure you're applying when you draw:



If you uncheck these options, then the stroke you draw should accurately reflect the pressure settings and the pressure you apply.

Also be aware that the way the pen/brush behaves as you apply pressure can also be customised within MS. Click the green button in the Tool Options palette:



to bring up an editable curve that controls the pressure response:



TBH, this curve could be larger but you can add extra points to it just by clicking on it, and each point can then be dragged. You can leave this dialogue active while you draw, so you can tweak the curve, try a couple of strokes to see how they work, then tweak some more if you're not happy.

I won't pretend that there isn't a learning curve here -- this isn't Photoshop, it's a package that seems to have been clearly designed by people who know about drawing comics, for people who want to draw comics. A lot of it seems quite counter-intuitive, but that's because people have become used to adapting their workflow to Photoshop, which tries to be all things to all artists, photographers and designers.

I've just mastered the panel cutter, which is fantastic, but which does take some getting your head around. Perspective snap (which requires the full EX version) is just awesome. Drop a perspective (1, 2 or 3 point) ruler onto your document, move the vanishing points as you see fit, and then every line you draw will snap to the closest line on the perspective grid as you draw it. Skyscraper in three point perspective in minutes.

Your linework layers (as PJ points out) stay in aliased bitmap mode, but you can add grayscale or colour layers to it without ever having to change the document's colour mode.

It's a good bit of kit. PJ is doing some great work with it ... I'm wondering if we shouldn't start a "Let's all figure out Manga Studio together" thread where we can go through stuff as we work it out?

Cheers!

Jim

[James]

Cheers Jim. I know what you mean about the stroke in/out settings, it's not that. Maybe it is because I'm so usedto Photoshop, but the problem is that when I draw a line, MS draws thatline as a, say, 3 pixel unweighted line and as soon as I finish the line it jumps into it's a weighted line tapered at the ends and with whatever pressure I put on the line as I drew it becoming apparent.

I may try and video or screengrab it to illustrate my point.

Sorry for being a twat. 

[Jim_Campbell]

Sorry for being a twat. 

You're not being a twat! Do you have any of the auto-correction options on, because that's the only obvious thing I can think of ...?

If that's not it, please bung up a screenshot -- if you fancy starting a "Manga Studio --WTF?" thread, so much the better!

Cheers

Jim

[James]

This is what I mean:



See when I draw the lines they are uniform and only become the inked lines as I finish drawing them?

[Jim_Campbell]

Gaah! .flv video -- my iPhone farts in your general direction! Laptop's upstairs but I'll have a proper look tomorrow and come back with a sensible answer then.

Cheers!

Jim