Questions for Manga Studio users

1. This one is entirely up to you. I use both Manga Studio and Sai, because I feel more comfortable sketching in Sai, but everything else - panels, speechbubbles, inking, colours, etc., - are all done in Manga Studio (which is basically the same as Clip Studio; it's just the names that are different). I recommend trying all the programs, and then deciding which one you're most comfortable with. Sai is the most limited of them, AFAIK, so you might not want to make Sai your main tool.

2. I ink mostly with the G-pen in Manga Studio, with these settings:
   
   And yes, resolution and canvas-size will make a difference to how your lines look in the final product. I work at 300 dpi as a minimum, and rarely work smaller than 1000 pixels wide/tall. Grassblades392 is drawn at 3307x4677, at 300 dpi or higher, and is then downsized to 800 pixels wide when I post it online (though Tapastic's limit is 940). The rule of thumb is to draw bigger than you intend to post.

3. Pen-pressure is a must, unless I intentionally want to keep the lines uniform and mechanical-looking (such as, for example, when I want to draw something mechanical). Pen-pressure makes the lines look more organic and natural, and helps keep my inking from looking too stiff. When I ink on real paper, I tend to use brush-pens or even real brushes. I like the look of it.

4. Lots and lots of sketching before I start inking, and lots and lots of references. If I'm going to draw, say, a really big and complicated building, I go look up photos that look similar to what I want, and then use those for reference. Photo-references are you very best friend - use them as much as you need.

5. Again, practise and reference - and colour theory. Using cooler colours (blue, green, certain shades of yellow and purple) for the shadows results in a certain look, while using warmer colours (red, orange, most yellows and some purples) in another. If the light in the scene is more orange/yellow, I'll pick shadow-colours in the blue/purple range, since they are complimentary colours. If the scene takes place in a forest, the overall tone is more likely to be green, which will reflect on skintones and such.

When colouring Grassblades, I go with a method where I do most of my shading on a separate layer set to "multiply", which goes on top of the layer with my flat colours, and I also adjust the overall tone of the lighting with layers set to "overlay", and push extra highlights with a "glow-dodge" layer, because that's quicker than individually painting each and every thing. Just experiment a lot and try to find a method that works for you.

1. Always best to become a master of one, rather than use them all poorly.
2. 300 dpi will avoid pixelation. Keep in mind what you are looking at on the screen is not always hoe it will look when printed. Make some test prints to see for yourself.
3. Your digital art should match your normal style. If you apply pressure to get thick and thin lines with a brush or nib, then continue to do so.
   4 and 5. This seems like you need some basic art lessons that have nothing to do with digital. Take some classes, read some books and take advantage of the many free tutoriials online.

1.Well you can use photoshop if you don't find coloring on Clip Studio Paint/Manga Studio comfortable, but to be honest stick with Clip Studio Paint/Manga Studio since it's also a decent coloring program.

2.I made my lineart settings look like vector-ish, and no the resolution and the size of the canvas doesn't affect the lineart.

I also adjusted my pen pressure like this, since it's more easier for me to ink with that settings.

(btw, the resolution is used for printing quality, 600-1200 resolution or dpi are used for printing purposes, tho on the program itself the resolution affects the text size and the lower the resolution is, the smaller the text gets, and for importing images inside the canvas, the higher the resolution is, the smaller the image you imported inside the canvas.

The text "test" is size 9 on different resolutions.

(Resolution: 75)

(Resolution: 300)

(Resolution: 600)

3.I use the "the lines looks the same" because it matches pretty well with my style, but almost all of the users use the pen pressure, so yeah, pen pressure.

4.Sketching first, and a -wild imagination-

5.I'm not the guy for this question because sometimes i pick the colors semi-randomly, but i guess experiment yourself with coloring and stuff.
When i color my cartoon style, i just slap on some colors, but when i color my anime style, i use the airbrush tool and the gradient tool to make it look "shiny", as for the skin, i use HSV, and i usually just remove 20 for the V and adding 5-10 for the S, idk if im doing it right, im still learning how to properly color and to shade properly.

Arisa3.png1200x1200 641 KB

There's an upside to using all of them, but a downside as well.

Upside? You become well-rounded in your knowledge of programs and if there's something you can't do in one program, you'll know you can do it in another and you'll know -how- to do it. I use a mixture of Paint Tool SAI and Photoshop - I use SAI for the art and Photoshop for the layout stuff, like the panels and the text and stuff like that that SAI doesn't do well (or at all). I sometimes peek into Clip Studio Paint, but I haven't learned the program yet so I don't use it as regularly as SAI.

Downside? Not so much a downside, but a cautionary - make sure you stay consistent, because switching programs can often change the way your art looks (like the difference in types of brush strokes between SAI and Photoshop; SAI has lines that appear to be a lot sharper than PS, IMO.) So pick your programs for what you want to use them for. Ex. Use SAI for drawing, Photoshop for layouts, Clip Studio Paint for tones, etc.

@carlojoseph179 The width of the line depends on which size brush you use - you can see in the example that mine is 40, but you can use any size you'd like. And the width of the line also depends on pen-pressure; if you press down hard with your pen, the line is thicker, and if you draw with a light hand, it's thinner. I work with pen-pressure on, and my lines vary a lot depending on how hard I press down with my pen against the tablet.

These lines are all drawn with the same pen, using the settings I posted above:

The only difference is how hard I push against the tablet when I draw.

Most of these people covered everything.

I will say, in regards to your first question, that I like having different tools at my disposal depending what it is I want to accomplish.
Manga Studio 5 has a pretty evolved coloring set but I tend to do the vast majority my work, color and black-n-white, in Manga Studio 4. I picked up Frenden's brushes for MS4 and it was a whole new world in there.

Every now and then I'll do a painting in PS or Sai for fun. Sometimes I even export something from MS, import to PS, and color it there.

So, I would encourage experimentation. Play around with whatever software you can get your hands on.

I am familiar with Painter, Photoshop and one that you haven't mentioned that has excellent brushes - Corel PhotoPaint. I have looked extensively at MangaStudio but the proprietary format which cannot be imported by other industry programs scares me. At least with Photoshop, Painter, or even PhotoPaint, you know that other apps can import your work or that the companies behind them will be around in 10 years. This is why I try not build any of digital work on specialized apps like MangaStudio.

Having said that, I use vector illustration which allows me to bypass any resolution problems. I just export to bitmap at the needed resolution if I need anything for print or screens. I use Flash but many people use Illustrator. Each supports pen pressures and brushes up t a certain point. It will give your work solid ink style though and this may not be the feel that you want for your comic. For me, it's the perfect look.

Cheers

@ToonDoctor - I hardly ever use the .lip format - I always save in PSD, and Manga Studio can handle that just fine. It can handle almost all image-formats, AFAIK, so that's not an issue.

I say heck DO take adavntage of it all. When I'm doing colour on any of my artworks I usually use any array of programs, even when I'm just doing screentones and ink. For inking Manga Studio is the go to for me as @AnnaLandin said, the G-Pen is great for this because it's fully adjustable. Most of screentones are also done on MS, however some effects are done better in Photoshop. I mostly use PS to colour as well but when it comes to doing fine strands of hair I usually use the same inking method is MS but just with colour.

It just depends on what I want something to look like sometimes Corel Painter is great because of the brushes that they have there and brushes that I've made. For some reason I also find mixing colours and finding complementary shadeS easier on PS, I think I kind of defy the whole Photo part in photoshop since I mostly use it for painting

It's good to get a feel of any and every program you can get your hands on when you're an artist, it just makes you more of an all rounder and if you practice enough with everything then most of your artworks will come out just great

This was done with Manga Studio and Photoshop.

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