Wiley Manga Studio For Dummies
Contents
1. Icon Name Description ial Save All Saves all of your open Manga Studio files d Cut Cuts a selection from the page to the computer s clipboard Copy Copies a selection from the page to the computer s clipboard B Paste Pastes a selection from the computer s clipboard to the page m Clear Deletes a selection from the page Ei Undo Reverses the preceding action i Redo Replaces an Undo action Print Sends the page to your printer fF Tools Opens hides the Tools palette palette Tool Options Opens hides the Tool Options palette palette E Layers Opens hides the Layers palette palette ch Navigator Opens hides the Navigator palette palette Fa Tones Opens hides the Tones palette palette Properties Opens hides the Properties palette palette History Opens hides the History palette palette Chapter 1 Getting to Know Manga Studio 7 a Figure 1 3 The Page toolbar a i Icon Name Description Gray Opens hides the Gray palette palette Materials Opens hides the Materials palette palette Custom Opens hides the Custom Tools palette p Tools palette g Actions Opens hides the Actions palette palette Available in Manga Studio EX only Adjusting your view with the Page toolbar The Page toolbar shown in Figure 1 3 contains general page viewing and manipulation tools These allow you to adjust on2. Figure 1 5 That s a lot of palettes on the screen Exploring various palettes While the Tools palette is probably the one you ll use the most in Manga Studio it isn t the only one available When you opened the program for the first time you were bombarded with palettes and windows as shown in Figure 1 5 It s a lot to weed through at first but as you get to understand each of the palettes in the program you may find them as indispensable as the Tools palette If at any time you d like to remove some of the clutter from too many palettes open at once press the Tab key on your keyboard to hide them all at once Press the Tab key again to make them all visible again Tool Options Each tool in Manga Studio is customizable in one way or another The Tool Options palette shows you all the options available with the currently selected tool This allows you to tweak the tools to your heart s content until they re set in such a way that they feel as comfortable to use as their real world counterparts L Manga Studio EX File Edit Story View Selection Layer Ruler Filter Window Help Sn e a A ae t HETH alam axs jew Page 8 24 11 68inches 600dpi JE Hand Tool Options Go ela 3 oaa Ao gt ele S Sete gt
3. O IS 6 xX D gt O WORN T A ADS GOIN KA E HE I discuss most of these tools in later chapters 20 Part I Welcome to Manga Studio ar You can access any of the tools from your keyboard by pressing the shortcut key noted in Table 1 3 As you go through the table you ll notice that some tools share the same shortcut That allows you to cycle quickly through these similar tools by pressing the shortcut key multiple times For example you would press the P to select the Pen tool press P again to select the Pencil tool and P once more to select the Marker tool To go back to the Pen tool simply press P again Table 1 3 The Tools Palette Icon Name Shortcut Description am Hand H Moves the page around the i workspace A Zoom Enlarges or reduces the page viewing area H i Rotate R Rotates the page in the workspace na Rectangle M Creates a rectangular or circular Ellipse Marquee selection pa Lasso Polygonal L Creates a custom selection g Lasso R Wand W Creates a selection within an enclosed area of a drawing Move Layer K Moves the highlighted layer around the page Th Object Selector 0 Selects and moves an endpoint of a ruler h Layer Selection D Highlights the layer of the line work screentone or any other object on the page you selected
4. b Pie SHOT og B48 la _ Wwetory or Seale 20 Layer Properties yom WY 0 aT Prope Ke Layet Typa Rantai Layat zi Layer Nama Layer menor Ea Expression Mods ils an A op Opacly 109 Resoktion SS hr Display Color Greyscele O Caler ie BD sbenative Color to Black pe A i He r TA Ye 7 2 Tones a 2 a S mml a Ww 3 e o Folder List K E a E a O fadt a j O a E wer Eese Computones o8 f A P hke Duline on Blaz 0 Sie E Z gt Black Dulre on h s DSim Layers GT gt Roundcurmad aguas Semen W fico FOW a PH AT gt Rouncoured squats Seem AO gt Doeal Layo o EJ J P Maski A gt Betawse lyer lopaaly 6 pisn o is EEY Peg gt Show coke ratun to op iE E i Print Guce and Basie Frame L A gt Export celactior for web E cid Layer ZI gt Seve open ret pad Femoral Grey Seok if A gt Fiter Black word3alo TL J SS Raster Layer 6odo Monochrome 26i8 Finish Mange Studio EX Chapter 1 Getting to Know Manga Studio 23 Layers Looking at the Layers palette you can see a whole slew of layer types that you can and probably will use as you create your pages The Layers palette helps to keep all the various layer types organized This way you not only know what layer you re currently working on but also keep track of the other layers and layer types you create I go over layers in much more detail in Chapter 6 Navig
5. a Line Curve Polyline U Creates a straight line curved line 4 or custom shape B Rectangle Ellipse U Creates a rectangular elliptical or a Polygon polygonal shape F Pen P Used for inking finishing a drawing a Pencil P Used for roughing out a drawing Chapter 1 Getting to Know Manga Studio 21 Icon Name Shortcut Description Fd Marker P Used for inking a drawing EF Eraser E Used to erase a drawing PAN Fill G Fills an enclosed area of a drawing with foreground or background color va Airbrush B Used to add spattering noise to a a drawing El Gradation G Adds a color gradient to the page F Pattern Brush B Paints a design pattern onto the page m Panel Maker F Creates a new panel layer on the page Ed Panel Ruler Cutter F Divides a panel into two used on a Panel Ruler only A Text T Adds text to a page wif Join Line J Joins two lines Pd Eyedropper Samples a screentone for use elsewhere fra Smooth 5 Smooths blurs an image iaa Dust Cleaner Removes excess particles from a Boi scanned image Ye Width Correction Adjusts the width of a vector line Line Lever Adjusts the position of a vector line Line Smoother Available in Manga Studio EX only Smoothes out a shaky vector line 22 lt r Part I Welcome to Manga Studio
6. at CD If you haven t purchased either version yet be sure to pop the CD ROM that gt accompanies this book into your computer e frontier the company that O brings you Manga Studio has generously included a 30 day demo version y of Manga Studio EX You can also download the demo version from www e frontier com go mangastudio It s a good way to test drive the program if you re still on the fence regarding which version to purchase Getting to Know Vour New Workspace Provided you ve installed your program and if you haven t yet you probably should you re now staring at your brand new workspace shown in Figure 1 1 with no idea where to start L Manga Studio EX sample001 cpg 8 24 11 68inches 600dpi Sax LJ File Edit Story View Selection Layer Ruler Filter Window Help 8x eug 9 SS RESORT S DKA waiso O43 Mo Fis Pee th Bitar 4 a JA j Layers mixi nx gt OON Gla MM aye Masking D Seecin MEE amp OIF ex E Guide SSS L Print Guide and R F P H Grcka AR ESP O WORN AAI BS DR GR Figure 1 1 Time to get ent Guide and pasc Frame Layer acquainted Sa with your new workspace a Manga Studio Di Chapter 1 Getting to Know Manga Studio 15 MBER et amp Sara Figure 1 2 The Main toolbar PC This is as good a time as any to familiarize yourself with the basic tools func tions and palett
7. the fly without the need to constantly switch to different tools or palettes to do the same thing Table 1 2 breaks the functions down for you daa Poss thb gt leg ae capa P Walls 0ang Alo gt HRl RE ANNEE Table 1 2 The Page Toolbar Icon Name Description l Zoom In Increases the size of the page s viewing area E Zoom Out Decreases the size of the viewing area continued 18 Part I Welcome to Manga Studio Table 1 2 continued Icon Name Description 12 5 Custom Zoom Allows you to manually enter the size of the viewing area by percentage Fit to Window Resizes the viewing area to fit within the page window L Rulers Actual Pixels Resizes the viewing area to its actual size in pixels Print Size Resizes the viewing area to fit within the user defined print size E Rotate Rotates the viewing area 90 degrees clockwise 0 Angle Allows you to enter a manual viewing angle for the page el Normal View Adjusts the viewing area to its default setting Flip Image Horizontally inverts the viewing area Horizontally Flip Image Vertically inverts the viewing area Vertically E Show Hide Sets the visibility of any rulers on the page Page Rulers Show Hide Allows you to see the transparent n
8. Chapter 1 Getting to Know Manga Studio In This Chapter Understanding what Manga Studio can and can t do Getting familiar with the Manga Studio workspace Breaking down the functions of the Main toolbar Page toolbar and Tools palette Explaining what the other workspace palettes do in Manga Studio Ur you buy a new program do you actually read the instruction manual It s okay You can be honest I won t tell anyone The prob lem with skipping the instructions is that sometimes you miss out on many interesting tidbits you didn t know you could do with the program Well you can think of this chapter as your Manga Studio cheat sheet so you don t have to go read the instructions This chapter is your general overview of the program I discuss how it differs from other drawing programs and I do a run through of the Manga Studio workspace along with all the cool toys that you can use when producing your manga or comic And if you haven t yet decided which version of Manga Studio to purchase I discuss how the Debut and EX versions differ and which may be the one that best suits your drawing needs How Manga Studio Differs from Other Drawing Programs In many ways Manga Studio is similar to other drawing programs available such as Adobe Photoshop or Corel Painter Each of these programs is good in its own right but because Manga Studio is first and foremost a comic cre ation program it has a few functions that set it a
9. ator The Navigator palette works much like the functions available on the Page toolbar you can zoom in and out as well as rotate the page or enter manual values for each You ll also notice a miniature representation of your page as well as a red rectangle This allows you to move around the page much like using the Grab tool from the Tools palette All you need to do is click within the rectangle with your mouse or stylus and drag it around the preview pane As you can see manipulating the preview pane also moves the main page as well This is a good way to maneuver around the page without having to switch to the Grab tool every time you need to adjust its placement Tones The Tones palette is your repository for all the tones that come installed with your program as well as any customized tones you create Each type of tone available is filed into its own folder All you need to do is dig into those folders and find the tone you need For more information on using tones on your page be sure to check out Chapter 11 Layer Properties Each layer type in Manga Studio has its own set of properties to go along with it The Layer Properties palette shows you all the options available for that particular type Options you can t adjust are grayed out Adjusting the properties can range from simply renaming the layer to setting the layer specific ruler properties Chapter 6 covers the various layer properties available to you depen
10. creating your own you may find these to be another way to shave a few seconds or minutes off of your production time you can then use to focus on more creative things 26 Part I Welcome to Manga Studio
11. d while working with them Don t get me wrong I think there are some flat out awesome art pro grams on the market The problem that I was having was while they re good art programs I didn t find them to be very good comic drawing programs As experimented with these programs I could never find a good comfort level to create my work digitally from start to end More often than not I found myself working with multiple programs just to get a page done Chapter 1 Getting to Know Manga Studio ar What I found when working in Manga Studio is that comfort level It was the first program that I felt let me take advantage of the digital medium while also having the real world feeling I normally had when working with real pencils and inks So I thought I d list a few features of Manga Studio that I found to be the most helpful to my work and possibly will help you out as well Adding a personal touch to line work with custom rulers and guides When using a program such as Photoshop or Painter your ability to draw straight lines or custom curves can be a bit limited You can always use the Line Curve or Pen tools but because the lines all end up uniform there s definitely a loss of personality What you need are virtual rulers that can guide you in creating and adjusting straight edges curves and polygons of any size and shape Then all you need to do is draw on them much like their real world counterparts adding your
12. ding on the layer type History The Undo function in Manga Studio is a great way to quickly erase a mistake you may have just made But what happens if you need to go back several steps You could always undo a few extra times or if you happen to own Manga Studio EX you can take advantage of the History palette 24 Part I Welcome to Manga Studio The History palette keeps track of a set number of previous actions which you can set in the System Preferences of the program in a list You just look through the list to the action you d like to go back to and click it with your mouse or stylus Instantly you travel back in time to the point you want to start over from And you don t even need a DeLorean to do it Just a quick note to you Manga Studio Debut users out there the rest of the palettes are exclusive to the EX version of the program Gray EX only The Gray palette gives you a bit more fine tuning for the color of your ink as you re working on a layer Much like the opacity setting determines how opaque or transparent a layer can be the Gray palette adjusts how dark or light a shade of gray you d like to work in This is useful for those who like to work loosely and lightly with their pencils and then go back and refine the work with a darker pencil If you don t want to create a brand new layer for the tight pencils you can just adjust the grays as you go along You can try setting the gray color to a
13. es that you ll be using in Manga Studio You re going to be using them a lot so it s best to get to know them This section is intended to be a general overview I explore the functions in much more detail in later chapters Remember this is your cheat sheet I can t give you all the information right off the bat Recognizing the Main toolbar Much like many other programs both drawing and nondrawing you may have used the Main toolbar shown in Figure 1 2 contains your basic file and clipboard buttons You can save print cut paste undo and redo pretty easily from here As you can guess this toolbar is pretty straightforward ossa ali Ple S a a ame The Main toolbar also has buttons you can use to hide and show the various palettes available Because things can get pretty cluttered on your workspace when you have too many palettes open at once having the ability to quickly turn them on and off is handy Table 1 1 lists all the functions on the Main toolbar Table 1 1 The Main Toolbar Buttons Icon Name Description b New Page Creates a new page file New Story Creates a new story file Open Opens an existing Manga Studio file ia lel Save File Saves your page or story file continued 6 Part I Welcome to Manga Studio Table 1 1 continued
14. g to Know Manga Studio 13 Knowing what Manga Studio can t do easily The one thing Manga Studio can t do at least as easily as other drawing programs can is color work That s not to say it s impossible to do it just isn t really as intuitive as your traditional digital coloring programs The reason for this is simple at its heart Manga Studio was designed for black and white use While it can convert a layer from black and white to custom colors the intention is more to adjust your draft work color to differentiate it from your finished work You can do simple cell shaded style color work as well as some airbrushing to add highlights and shadows to a drawing However you can t alter a layer s settings like you can in Photoshop This means you can adjust only the layer s opacity functions like multiply or overlay don t exist in Manga Studio The other thing to keep in mind is that each color has to be on its own separate layer This can certainly bloat the size of your page file if you re planning on doing detailed color work In Chapter 14 I go over how you can do some simple color work in Manga Studio It s a fun little trick that you can experiment with However if you re looking to do some serious color work for your comic this is the one area that Manga Studio lacks compared to other programs Debut versus EX Which Is Right for Vou Manga Studio comes in two flavors Debut and EX Choosing t
15. he right version for you comes down to what features you re looking for in a drawing program what ones you can do without and most importantly how much money you re willing to spend Manga Studio Debut is the introductory level version of the program There are no bells and whistles to this version of the program it con tains all the basic tools you need to create your manga from start to finish Debut works as a fairly accurate simulation of all the traditional tools you would use for producing a comic all in one convenient package If you re looking for a straight forward drawing and screentoning art pro gram you may want to consider this version instead of EX At a lower price point than the EX version Debut is easy on your wallet 1 Manga Studio EX helps you take advantage of the fact that you are work ing on a computer This version provides shortcuts and functions that you simply can t do with traditional tools or even Manga Studio Debut The EX version also allows you to work with vectors which let you expand 14 Part I Welcome to Manga Studio or shrink your artwork to whatever size you need without any loss of quality The Debut version by comparison is raster based only This means that you will lose line quality if you try to enlarge the image If you have the money to spend and would like a few shortcuts to help speed up and streamline your creative process this may be the version for you
16. lighter shade for your loose roughs Then when you re ready to tighten the pencils up darken the grays and start refining It s a great alternative to those who feel some life from their work is lost when traced on a separate layer Materials EX only The Materials palette is your repository for all the various tools and samples that you can use in your drawing These include 1 Two dimensional images that you can use with the 2DLT importing function which I explain in Bonus Chapter 2 on the CD 1 Three dimensional objects that you can use with the 3DLT importing function which I explain in Bonus Chapter 2 on the CD v Custom Ruler shapes such as French Curves Elliptical and Circular rulers and others Preset Layer Types such as a Black Only Raster pen layer YY Word balloons You can place each of these materials on the page by clicking and dragging it using your mouse or stylus In addition you can save your own custom images rulers and layer types in the User folder I discuss the Materials palette in a bit more detail in Chapter 15 Chapter 1 Getting to Know Manga Studio 25 Custom Tools EX only While the Tools palette provides all your important drawing tools EX users can take that idea a bit further The Custom Tools palette allows you to cus tomize exactly which tools you want to have at the ready Don t want to have to hold down the Pencil tool in order to switch them Add all the penci
17. ls you want right onto the palette Want to quickly access functions without having to go through a series of nested menus You can add those as well There s no limit to what you can add To help you organize things a bit further you can switch between custom sets If you d like to have a custom palette of rough work tools and one with nothing but vector tools it s easy to set up and switch This palette is yet one more way you can streamline the way you work digitally by quickly accessing to the tools and functions you use most frequently Actions EX only Have you ever run into instances where you find yourself repeating the same series of functions over and over It can prove to be quite tedious and boring if you have to export a series of pages one at a time for example If you re an EX user you may find the Actions palette can help relieve you of these doldrums Actions or macros as they re often called in other programs are a series of recorded commands and functions What s special about these actions is that instead of repeatedly going through a series of steps manually you can use actions to quickly perform those steps automatically The preinstalled actions can range from automatically setting up the proper ties of an imported image to adding an outline to exporting your page for the Internet What s more you can always record your own actions to use at a later time When using the preinstalled actions or
18. on inked of Transparent areas of the page i Area Show Hide Used to adjust any rulers on the page he Ruler Manipulator Fi Snap Mode Sets ability for a drawing tool to automatically snap On Off to any ruler or guide Snap to Snaps drawing tool to any rulers on the page Rulers Snap to Snaps drawing tool to any perspective rulers mr Perspective onthe page DE Figure 1 4 The Tools palette i Chapter 1 Getting to Know Manga Studio 9 Icon Name Description Snap to Snaps drawing tool to any focus line rulers ie Focus Line on the page Rulers Snap to Snaps drawing tool to any parallel line rulers Parallel on the page z aunt Lines Snap to Guides Snaps drawing tool to any guides on the page H Snap to Grid Available in Manga Studio EX only Snaps drawing tool to any grids on the page Accessing your core set of tools Out of all the various functions actions and palettes that come with Manga Studio there is one that I m sure you ll use more than any other the Tools palette which you can see in Figure 1 4 This is your toolbox Or more specifically this is your art box This palette contains all the drawing tools you need to rough out your page cut out unnecessary sections ink it up and erase any mistakes you made along the way In Table 1 3 I compile a list of the tools in the palette along with short descriptions of what they do
19. our story is just open one file instead of several Chapter 4 discusses how to work with these files Manga Studio EX users also can combine two consecutive pages into a spread for those large action pieces you want to draw Conversely you can split a spread into two separate pages Knowing your page dimensions with print guides preinstalled and custom Manga Studio includes page templates of various shapes and sizes that are useful if you re planning on printing your comic In addition for several of those templates a set of print guides is included The print guide helps you keep track of what areas of the page are safe and what areas are cut off by the printer when preparing it for the final book It s a very useful way to make sure any important artwork or dialogue isn t acci dentally cut because you didn t keep track of where the cut off points were I go over the basics of the print guide in Chapter 4 Creating custom word balloons EX only Many programs offer the ability to add text to a page but Manga Studio EX provides you the option of adding word balloons as well These vector based balloons can be squashed stretched and fitted to whatever dialogue you want to add EX comes with a wide variety of balloon shapes to choose from but if you don t see what you re looking for you can always create your own Check out Chapter 12 for more information on how the word balloon function works Chapter 1 Gettin
20. own personal touches to the line work as you go along Manga Studio provides such a feature with its Ruler Layers feature which lets you create as many rulers as you need for your page Straight or curved rec tangular or polygonal you can make any kind of ruler you need In addition you can scale and rotate the rulers Do you find that your curved ruler isn t quite how you want it Grab an endpoint and adjust it It s just that simple To me the best part is that when the ruler is set you can vary your line weight as you draw along the ruler It probably doesn t sound like much but it s a great thing if you want to be able to add a bit of a personal flair to your technical line work See Chapter 8 for the details on using the Rule Layers feature Eliminating shakiness in line work If you ve ever tried drawing or inking in Photoshop at anything less than 200 zoom I m sure you ve noticed you need unnatural steadiness to draw anything resembling a straight line Even at your steadiest you notice some wobble to your line work The only way to remedy that is to zoom in close to the page but you risk losing sight of the picture as a whole as you work Manga Studio provides the ability to set a variable correcting to the line work What this means is that as you work the line adjusts itself to reduce or elimi nate shakiness The setting is variable so you can make the correction as strong or as light as you like If yo
21. part from other drawing programs and that help make your life as a digital artist easier 0 Part I Welcome to Manga Studio Don t let the name fool you The one critique have about the program is So let me reassure you you can use Manga that its name was changed from the original Studio to draw manga superhero comics or Japanese name of Comic Studio to Manga any other style or genre of sequential art In the Studio here in America l m not really sure why following figure you can see three different the name was changed aside from catchingthe styles of comics all done in Manga Studio The eye of manga fans and artists The problem with thing to keep in mind when using this program is this name change is that when talk to my _ thatit s a tool to create art It s no different than Western based comic book artist buddies they using traditional pens and pencils think that the program is for the production of manga only Far from it Fave s cea Ose teaseten Sheets Cacia te node Artwork courtesy of Michael Rhodes Teyon Alexander characters Merge Comics and Jason Masters God Complex Brandon Thomas and Jason Masters Finding out what Manga Studio can do for you Over the years of producing art digitally I ve tried out a lot of different pro grams Each program would get the job done for me in one way or another but many times I would find myself feeling very frustrate
22. u like to work while zoomed out but have been unhappy with how your line work has been coming out this function may be just the remedy you need I tell you how to use this feature in Bonus Chapter 1 on the CD 11 12 Part I Welcome to Manga Studio lt P Having thousands of screentones at your disposal Manga Studio comes preinstalled with thousands of screentones patterns of dots or other shapes that are used in black and white artwork to represent shades of gray that you can t get with other drawing programs In addition these tones are vector based which means that you can adjust the size of your finished page to any size you want and the quality of the tones remains the same This is something that even the Computones package for Photoshop can t do Incidentally EX users can use Computones in addition to the pro gram s main tones so there s another advantage Chapter 11 covers all you need to know about adding screentones to your work Working with multiple page story files What if you could contain all of the pages in your story or chapter in one place which you could then easily preview as you go along Manga Studio provides that with its story files Here you can create as many pages as you d like and they re organized in one location You can then rearrange the pages add new ones or remove excess ones And because all the page files are collected within one story file all you need to do to view y
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