Date: June 6, 2006 - Author: Jen McPherson - Editor: Rob Williams
Manga Studio is an extensive art program developed for aspiring manga artists, and has been featured by the popular J-pop magazine Tokyopop. It has an extensive selection of tools available for the manga artist to use at their disposal, which is impressive to say the least. Having all the tools you'll need to create and publish manga from your desktop? Sounds too good to be true!
There are currently two versions of Manga Studio available, Manga Studio EX and Manga Studio Debut. In this review we'll be looking at Manga Studio Debut 3.0. Although it doesn't have all the tools that EX has, I'm still excited to be working with it. I will go over some of the features that Manga Studio has and show some examples of what it is capable of in my own hands.
My copy of Manga Studio was downloaded from Content Paradise, and that download didn't take very long at all on a 3 meg cable connection. You can burn your copy to disk and your issued a virtual key. I recommend writing your key down on your disk, as well as somewhere else safe that you'll remember. If you purchase Manga Studio I'm sure there is an option to get a mailed CD package. This method was quick and convenient for me and I was able to dive right into it instead of having to wait for a CD to arrive in the mail. Installing was fast and easy, very straight forward and no hassle. I'm sure that most people who've used a PC know how to install a program, this is no different.
Many aspiring artists start with the programs available to them, and at the time you'd get the basics like Illustrator, Photoshop. I'm an avid Photoshop junkie and recommend it for all sorts of photo editing and manipulation. Manga Studio is not Photoshop... but Photoshop isn't Manga Studio. That's where this gets interesting. Typically an artist will begin their manga on PS or Illustrator, where the tools are more designed for design and manipulation, whereas Manga Studio is all about the comics, with tools designed for comic works.
Manga Studio has true inking capabilities, unlike Photoshop who's primary design is for painting and digital editing, Manga Studio's pens are like true inking pens, with many different tip types to chose from, as well as being able to adjust the pens tip size and pressure. Now some people work with a mouse, but I have a tablet and absolutely love the feel of the pens in this program.
Immediately I was impressed with how the 'ink' flowed smoothly and the ease of doing ink work over pencil outlines. It was so different that what I've been use to. Lines were indeed crisp and clean, and far easier adjusted than PS. If you work with a mouse you miss out on the adjusted pressure you can apply to the pen with a tablet, for its just as if you were working with a real ink tip. The only thing I notice is that at 100% zoom the lines look jagged and things look messy, which leads me to believe that the zoom in this is not exactly correct, or it just isn't setup like PS and I'm crazy and can't figure it out. So I typically kept the zoom at a low setting.
Starting a comic is easy, with page presets available for you and auto markers to show bleed and cut off lines. You can create a story and add new pages to it as you go, which is great for organization of your files. All of your works are saved in their own folders with a story set you create. Creating a story saves all page files opened in that story to that directory, so you don't have to hunt around for where you saved your page files. There are also a bunch of templates you can use for your page setup.
Sketches can also be scanned in to Manga Studio or imported as sketch layers, making inking all the quicker and easier. My first experiment in Manga Studio is to just test out its drawing features, rather than the layout options. I planned to make a small image, and so started the layout with the pencil. This is really great and its easy to get a good outline sketch layout going with a light gray line, and on its own individual layer. You can go very detailed with your sketch layer and draw out the entire comic layout on the page, then ink it all in after on separate layers. I just did a basic outline, then completed the inking on separate layers. If you've ever used programs like Illustrator or Photoshop then you've already got a head start because it works in a similar manner, and learning isn't difficult at all even if you haven't.
My next attempt is a full page drawing like you typically see in key scenes in a manga, where it will bleed off the entire page. I really wanted to experiment with the tones here as well as multiple layering. Layers are set up similar to Photoshop, with your sets visible in the side box. It also has several preset layers for you, which helps speed up work time. First I make my pencil outline, then ink it on several separate layers, body outline, clothing and hair. Seems simple enough, and mistakes are easily fixed by having multiple layers.
Opening the tone library there are many different tones to chose from, from patterned to gradient styles. Choose from more than 1,800 screen tones in Debut, or over 3,000 screen tones in EX, and even create your own. Using the lasso tool you can select areas you want your tone to be, and then find a tone you like in the library. Click and drag the tone onto your selected area and it pastes it where you wanted it, and on its own separate layer, so no fear of having it mess up any line art. Here you can clean up the tone if it leaked into areas you didn't want, and you can also stack tone layers. You also don't need to worry about moire patterns in Manga Studio.
Creating focus lines is fast and easy with their filters, and adjusting them is just as simple. Using one of these special filters opens a dialog box with settings for each type. You can use the draw position shape tool (circle) to adjust the size and width/height of it as well as use the draw position move tool (pencil) to form the center to any form. Same with speed lines, and adjusting how many lines there are and the width and density of them are but a click to change. Its so fast and easy, so much easier than having to create each individual line by hand using rulers or attempting to make them in Photoshop.
Now I start trying out panels and possible layouts, having messed with the drawing tools. Setting up panels is easy by using the ruler. Here you can open a new layer and select panel ruler layer, and ok. Here it sets up a panel right on top of your basic page frame. The panel ruler layer is placed in its own category in your layers panel, under rulers, keeping things nice and organized. Then you just select the panel ruler layer and use the panel ruler cutter from the tools pallet and use it to divide the large panel into smaller ones. Then you can either rasterize the layer to a bmp to ink.
It may seem a bit daunting to start but it wasn't hard to get going, and soon enough you'll be making your own panels in a flash. This is really a great feature, for traditionally I'd just use the box tool and draw in a bunch of boxes. They wouldn't be aligned correctly and so realigning them took up more time, and then erasing anything outside the boxes as well. Here the panel cutter separates them evenly, so that was no longer a problem, and anything outside the boxes it is covered in a layer white.
What's also great about Manga Studio is that you can use it to publish your works directly to the web, print them off yourself, or save them as digital files so you can take them to your local print shop. I haven't tried any of these features myself since, one I don't have a comic yet, and two... time. But I'm sure its just as easy as it would be if you were using a program like Photoshop.
You can also get additional content for Manga Studio from e frontier in packs called Power Templates, that you can purchase from their website. These templates can include poses of the human figure in still, motion and many different poses to help you draw your manga better.
After using Manga Studio I have to say I'm hooked. I could write a novel on its use and there's still so much I haven't gone over, but figured that if you really want a true feel for it there's nothing like giving it a go yourself, and I guarantee its well worth it. One thing I do have to say though is that although you can use your mouse with it, you'll never get to experience the fullness of it without a pen tablet. For all manga purposes it can't be beat and its a cheap alternative when compared to actual 'hand' working your manga. The costs of tools add up and Manga Studio would more than pay for itself in the long run. Manga Studio Debut has many great features for a budding artist, and Manga Studio EX has even more to boast for the professional.
Whether your a beginner or a professional I guarantee you'll love Manga Studio. Photoshop still can't be beat when it comes to digital rendering, painting and photo editing in my book, but Manga Studio out shines it when it comes to creating black & white comics. If your a manga artist I say give Manga Studio a try, you'll find its truly a great program, a complete joy to use, and will become a very important part of your art tools. I know it will be for me, and I only used the Debut version! Just thinking of all the fantastic tools to use and things you can do in the full EX version makes me tingle all over.
Thumbs up to e frontier for allowing me to test their program, its a true gem. Manga Studio Debut gets a 9 out of 10, and an Editor's Choice Award.
If you wish to discuss this review, feel free to head on into our related thread. You do not need to even register in order to reply!
Copyright © 2005-2009 Techgage Networks Inc. - All Rights Reserved.