[Angie]

Apparently Smith Micro is doing a crazy sale again, so for 4 days they have Manga Studio 4 EX for sale for $30.

http://my.smithmicro.com/landing/bundlesale/index.html?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=SMBundle20130910

They have Poser and Anime Studio up too but I don't care about those. If you draw digitally, it's far superior to Sai and Photoshop in terms of crispness and line quality.



The program is slowly becoming an industry standard, so I highly recommend it if you're a digital artist!

[Red]

FINALLLLYYY! Purchased!

Manga studio is what I've been doing the Somadis comics in. I love this program!!

[seevah]

For you anime kids out there is called comicstudio in Japan and is what they digitally draw manga with (the ones that do it digitally that is)

[Ahmed]

How is it for coloring? Any distinct advantages versus coloring in Photoshop? Not that I'm looking for a reason to ditch PS or anything, just wanted to know!

As far as doing linework in PS, you can get pretty crisp lines using the pencil tool at 600 ppi and then knocking it down to 300 ppi afterwards.

[Evil_Encounter]

How is it for coloring?...

I would not recomment MS4 for coloring but i have MS5 and it is superior to all drawing programms i used so far.
It should have anything an artist needs.

[Red]

How is it for coloring? Any distinct advantages versus coloring in Photoshop? Not that I'm looking for a reason to ditch PS or anything, just wanted to know!

As far as doing linework in PS, you can get pretty crisp lines using the pencil tool at 600 ppi and then knocking it down to 300 ppi afterwards.

So Manga studio can let you work on a separate layer, but  refer to other layers. So normally in photoshop you would go to your line art layer, select the areas you want to fill, expand your selection, then go to the color layer and color away.

In Manga studio, you just make a new layer and start filling color. It recognizes that the line layer exists, and fills accordingly. And you don't get that gross mess on the edges like you sometimes do in photoshop (fixed by expanding your selection). So it speeds it up a lot. It blew my mind when I first started using it. If you do flats and add simple shadows then it is exactly what you are looking for.

It also has perspective grids built in so it's super easy to create backgrounds. I heard that they took out some features in version 5, and focus more on digital coloring. Either way, it makes flats super easy. It also has this feature when it will kind of smooth/slow your lines a bit, and give you more control... it's hard to describe but it's amazing.

For reference, I inked and colored this comic in Manga Studio: http://entervoid.com/view.php?id=4545&side=1&iid=2

[Slagglle]

So I've been using Photoshop elements 6 for some 4 or 5 years now. Would it be worthwhile to switch over to Manga Studio? I only really use it for coloring anyways.

[Red]

So I've been using Photoshop elements 6 for some 4 or 5 years now. Would it be worthwhile to switch over to Manga Studio? I only really use it for coloring anyways.

Whoa you need an upgrade. Yeah, I mean the worst thing that will happen is that you'll be out $30 if you absolutely hate it. It's similar to photoshop in a lot of ways but it takes a little while to get used to. Go for it.

[Puzzlething]

     I dunno if Mangastudio can do the exact same stuff as photoshop when it comes to coloring, but that's just because I'm still pretty turrible at digital stuff. Like, the line quality is most def the best thing ever, but I'm not sure about the colouring. It's ridiculously convenient and quick to color with though. Besides the stuff red was saying, there's also a few shortcuts the program doesn't tell you about which are amazing. Like anything based on selection, like the wand or paint bucket, recognizes the content underneath it when you click.

  So like if you hold down the paintbucket when you click, it'll continually fill, but only if you drag over the same colour as the spot where you first pressed down. It makes it super fast to do colour in highly detailed sections. You can also have the program auto-close gaps of varying sizes. You'll still have to fiddle with those spots manually afterwards, but it does save a little time. It all adds up. Like I think one of the major reasons I was able to colour all my SDT comics was because MS makes it so easy.

There's also the "Paint at leftover part" tool, but I'm not totally sure how to use it yet. It seems like it could be cool if I could get it to work consistently.

[Monday]

Mac OS version ?

[Red]

Mac OS version ?

y e s

also, they mail you a disc. Why isn't there a download? I do not understand at all.

[Zest]

Woah. I've had MS since last year's sale and I didn't know about half of these color tools. Is there a good tutorial somewhere I could look at?

I'll pitch in and say that the inking tools in MS are fucking phenomenal. Where Photoshop's base brushes feel mushy, Manga Studio's feel crisp and weighty. There's some great custom brushes out there, but I haven't feel the need for it yet, I'm having too much fun with the basic set.

[Puzzlething]

Oh dude, where did you find good custom brushes?! When I look it just feels like a complete drought. It's like the one thing that pushes me back into colouring in photoshop every so often.

[Angie]

I've only seen some good inking ones.

[JCee]

Already got my copy!

Just need to work up the inspiration to get cracking with the program!