Customer Reviews

Manga Studio EX Professional [OLD VERSION]

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

You don't have to be a Manga artist to find a use for this program. With the ability to make custom frames and use dozens of tones, black and white comics are a snap to make. The interface is easy to use and familiar to anyone familiar with Adobe Photoshop. I stumbled upon this program while surfing around Amazon. While intrigued I was disappointed at the lack of user reviews for the product so I went digging for information. Hopefully I'll be able to help everyone else who stumbles across it.

As I said before the interface is easy to use and well remind you of Photoshop. Many of the tool bars (windows) are the same or similar to those in Photoshop, such as navigation, history, and layers. The program also comes with a Beginners guide to help you get started. Tablet users well be overjoyed to know that this program supports the WACOM products: Graphire series, Intuos series, Intuos2 series, Cintiq series, and PL series. (Other products aren't guaranteed to work)(taken from Beginner's Guide.pdf)

The biggest difference between Manga Studio EX and Manga Studio Debut (besides price) is the tools available. For a full list of tools a features avalable, please check this website [...]

A free 30 day trial version of Manga Studio EX is available at [...]

I am animation student at Brooks College and someone mentioned Manga Studio. I tried it out and liked it enough to get the Professional version recently; I have not been disappointed. The interface is reminiscent of Photoshop and so most of the functionality is inuitive. While I have yet to delve the depths of the program I have been very pleased at how natural the drawing tools feel with my Wacom. I find myself using it more and more for sketching rough ideas or for cleaning up line art. There are also a lot of goodies in the form of motion lines, background textures, text and page layout features aimed at the comic book or graphic novel artist.

If you like to draw comics, storyboards or want to scan in and clean up your hand drawings you definetly want to take this for a test drive.

This is a great manga program. Really makes your manga look like "manga" with all their tone options and the 3D models are great if you can't figure out how to draw a certain pose.

One problem though: Does not properly work with Windows Vista. Lots of missing strokes. I'm stuck having to now draw my manga in Photoshop and import PSD files into MS in order to be able to get anything accomplished. Very upset about this, I hope they release a patch for this or a fix or something. :(

I bought Manga Studio 3.0 EX, not really expecting to do much more than be able to publish comix. But if you want to extend its value it is on par with a desktop graphics studio for advertising or logo design as well! With the supplemental tones disc and all the controls one has to work with,.. I was initially overwhelmed. And now that I have Adobe Flash CS3 Pro as well, my use for Manga Studio is integrated into a full desktop production studio. It iterfaces with Flash, The GIMP, PhotoShop and Illustrator (Haven't tried it in PaintShopPro, yet..). And my Wacom Intuos3 tablet works seamlessly with it as well! I would suggest putting the manual (which comes with the software) on the desktop for easy access during the initial try-outs. I also did myself a favor and purchased "Manga Studio for Dummies"[[ISBN-10: 0470129867 ISBN-13: 978-0470129869 Manga Studio for Dummies (Paperback)]]... it never hurts to have another view by a user of the software. This app. just blew me away! I am so glad I got this! (I hear Waashuu's voice "I'M SO HAPPY!") No you cannot color in it, but the specialty of this software is that it is for inking and desktop OR printshop production of fine manga art reproduction, bar none (you can do the coloring in other venues such as PhotoShop)! So you want to produce your own comix? Get this software and start drawing! NOW!

I hesitated at plunking down $200 for this program, but the online reviews (not just here) were just too hard to ignore, as well as the demo version I had on my PC.

I've been using Manga Studio EX for almost a year, and It's been exactly what I was looking for in digital art production. I'll never go back to paper & pen again for drawing or even sketching; why bother when I can do the entire thing right on my computer screen? The 'rough' layout and final layout versions make the idea of mistakes laughable. I actually learn much more from them and are thus able to quickly correct them than if I'd done the sketching on paper.

While it's true that MS Ex doesn't employ colorization, I don't feel this takes away from the software's appeal at all. The conversion to .jpeg & other file formats easily recognized by Photoshop (my personal choice) & other editing programs will make it appear quite seamless. Also, the ability to put in captions & balloons so easily was a great Plus for me. With Manga Studio I'm actually able to see a comic page from the blank white screen to colored completion with minimal fuss.

My only warning would be to watch the file sizes as your comic pages get more detailed; my PC isn't new, but I have plenty of free space & adequate RAM (512) but saw some slowing in response time as the pages were filled w/ detailed drawings.

The best part about buying this from Amazon (as another reviewer posted) is that you get BOTH versions on a single disc; once I can afford a Mac station, you better believe Manga Studio EX is gonna be the 1st program installed!

Manga Studio EX is a great software product. All up and coming artists will find the amount of customization to be thrilling. Even a novice could create professional works with this program.
Let me layout the advantages of this software.
-Time Reduction: It allows an faster more efficient production
-Cost cutting: especially if you use screen tones (which I believe are hard to find without the internet), paints, or specialty pencils. Obviously because it is digital it can not run out so create all you want.
Editing: Once again digital media can be edited freely, unlike traditional pen and paper methods
Customization: Highly customizable tools and it even allows the traditional hand draw art to be scanned.
Ease: Almost right out of the box it is easy to use and to make things better even has preset standard paper sizes and templates such as B4.

If you are hesitant to plunk down the green for this product, just think about the total cost of replacing all your paints and pencils and tones on a regular basis

I got my copy for $143 (which is a bargain)
Shipped in no time and was in prime condition

My only grievance is that the program is a little old (it even looks it),
but a new version may be coming out soon. I definitely be getting the upgrade.

Ive been drawing with this software off and on for about a year now.I have some small gripes with the interface but nothing major.... just small quirks I have to put up with.

There are no major issues that I have experienced that should prevent anyone from drawing professional quality work with this software. Aside from one.... the complete and total lack of any capability to make use of colour. But thats to be expected, as anyone who is familiar with manga knows that most manga is all in B&W and screen tones. The only way I can see to apply colour to work created in Manga Studio, is to transfer your drawings made in MS to another program.

At its core MS is sound, reliable and relatively intuitive software for a program of this calibre. I would highly recommend this software for anyone interested in this type of program.

I put 3 stars becase I don't have the acual program yet but I have a question to the people that have this program, i can't find the answer no where else so........what I want to know is if you can't draw at all will this program help you draw. Cuz basically what i have been reading is that you only can import comics you have drawn and make them look better on here. What I need to know is can you actually draw on this program itself

Magnifico programa, muy superior a todo lo que he visto, increiblemente bien adaptado para todo dibujante de manga, profesional o principiante. Facil de usar, con todo tipo de herramientas y recursos utiles 100%, y lo que mas me ha impresionado es su capacidad para incorporar y editar objetos en 3D no solo los que vienen en el programa sino nuevos objetos de propia elaboracion o de los disponibles en Internet en varios formatos; los recibe y edita sin problema en la misma pagina de trabajo. Manga Studio EX es sencillamente maravilloso. Lo recomiendo ampliamente.