When I started drawing comics the workflow that I followed was:
* Sketching & Inking the images on paper
* Scanning the images
* Drawing Layout and lettering in Photoshop
After studying the advances made in the technology of Digital art (such as Wacom Tablets), I realized how much time is saved by drawing the comics digitally. One of the important points to consider when going digital is the software to use to draw the comics. Though photoshop/illustrator is the most common software, in this post I’d like highlight the features that make Manga Studio EX 4 a better software for creating Comics:
1. Comic Balloons
- Manga Studio Comic Balloon
Comics are a silent art (unlike movies). Balloons are important elements to express variation in what the character is saying. Manga Studio comes with a rich library of Vector balloons that can be easily resized & edited. Each Balloon contains a text, and balloon tails can be extended from it, this makes editing very easy.
2. Perspective Ruler
- Manga Studio Perspective Rulers
This feature along is good enough to use Manga Studio for comics. At times drawing backgrounds can be a pain, especially if there’s a complex 2/3 point perspective involved. The perspective ruler makes it a breeze. 1,2,3 point perspective rulers are available that makes it easy for you to draw perspective lines for your backgrounds. With the ruler in place, as you draw on the screen, it automatically snaps your drawing to the auxiliarylines.
3. Tones
- Manga Studio – Tones
Tones in a comic help to set the mood of the story. Black and White tones are especially an important element in Manga Comics. Manga Studio comes with a large library of Tones, which can easily be added to any panel by simply dragging and dropping it in.
4. Organize Comic in Pages (Story Management)
- Manga Studio – Story Mangement
Each Manga Studio Story file can contain several comic pages. This makes it very easy to oraganize your story and files on the hard disk.
5. Creating Panels
- Manga Studio Panels
This is another great feature. Not only is there a library of ready panels to use. it’s easy to create your own custom panels by varying the size & thickness of the panel borders.
6. Importing 3D Materials
- Manga Studio – Importing 3D Materials
Manga Studio allows a user to import and rotate 3D files. This can work as a great great hack for creating backgrounds! One way is to create a background using Google Sketchup, and import the file as a 3D material. Then you can either use this background or trace over it to whatever level of detail it suits you.
Want to get the best of both worlds? (Manga Studio + Photoshop)
- Manga Studio – Export to Photoshop with layers
Use the Export feature
Though Manga Studio is better than Photoshop for drawing comics in many ways, one aspect where it falls short is when it comes to coloring. So if you want to draw your comics in Manga Studio and color them in Photoshop, Manga Studio allows you to export your black and white comic page in PSD format maintaing all layers including text!
Ever since I’ve started using Manga Studio I’ve not looked back. If you’re a comic artist, I recommend you give it a try. A Trial version can be downloaded here for free.
Wow.
Good post.
To write such kind of article one must have more knowledge and that can be done by Mohammed Ali and Arif
Knowledge is power and you have cultivated by the grace of Almighty ALLAH.
Indeed you have your knowledge from Allah and it does not belong to you and everybody must have right to take from you and get knowledge.I am also one among the person to take advantage of that and I hope you would agree and you have to approve.
With kind wishes.
Nice article!
keep going..
wow! good article. It make want to use manga Studio EX already.
Well it’s true that it seems a bit better
but you still can do really fine with Photoshop and btw you can download the tones,brushes and text balloons into Photoshop so it’s fine , moreover it’s not a big deal Perspective can be done easily, if you are an experienced artist you can do perspective without even needing the lines,
and it’s true it is helpful 3D objects and saves time but wtf what kind of artist gonna enjoy drawing a character or two while everything else is already set? And for an aspiring artist who can’t even draw a car properly it has no meaning !?! It’s nice to have easy things but it’s not enough to actually replace talent !
I don’t think this kind of manga can be published since most of the drawings are not originally drawn !
For those aspiring to become real artists with published works use Photoshop for tones and paint tool SAI for the sketches and panels making
i must get a tablet so that i can use this programme
Bibi:
The perspective tool owns the crap out of photoshop. It is absolutely essential for quick perspective work. I can do free-form perspective on paper, I can do serious-work perspective on paper and I can do both in Comic Studio thanks to the perspective tool. I can do neither in Photoshop because I have to work around the limitations of not having any way to stick the tools to lines.
Photoshop is a general-use tool for photo manipulation that can be made to do other stuff. Comic studio is optimized to work with black and white images in high resolutions and it is DESIGNED to work with the cursor-snap rulers. These are extensively used and have a wide range of applications. Using the paralell lines ruler allows me to draw perfectly parallel lines quickly and efficiently. The concentric circles tool does the same but for circles. The symmetry tool is amazing, even if a primite variant of it exists in photoshop… And when I say primitive I mean it feels like something from the stone age.
Photoshop is great for colour work. Not for black and white comics. Sure amazing things can be done with it, but amazing things can be done in paint too. That doesn’t make paint great.
Hello!
I had stumbled over this while typing in google:
“How to export a psd format with layers in manga studio”
Could I possibly have some help? c: I see you can export up to five layers from what I am seeing… but I do not know how to get to that settings box.
Also, I have the $60 Manga Studio, not the $300 one xD If that makes a difference~ And I do have a Mac computer~
Check out our Manga Studio 5 EX!
http://manga.smithmicro.com/