Customer Reviews

Professional Manga: Digital Storytelling with Manga Studio EX

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book does not really cover much about the program 'Manga Studio EX' it is more of an "over all" how to draw manga comics or better yet 'general things to pay attention to'. I think the book might good for the "just learning how to draw" person but for help with the Manga Studio application it really lacks. It cover 3 things in Manga Studio, line quality(brushes), tones and speed lines which amounts to about 8 pages in the book and it doesn't go into any depth on those topics other than you can adjust the options to your liking. And it does not cover anything specific to the 'EX' version of Manga Studio.

The rest of the book is filled with drawings.. the same drawings over and over again. It will show a line drawing of a character then a proper shaded(toned) version of the same drawing then the line drawing again then 2 examples of improper shading of the same line drawing and finally the proper shaded version again. That's 6 pages and 2 of those 6 are duplicates. It does this over and over again, I guess to "up" the page count. About the whole last half of the book are rough sketches for some homemade comic with no explanation or anything. I returned my copy. Also, I have to say I did not open the included disc so I may have missed the real meat.. but I doubt it.

All in all, there's not much to recommend about this book. It has two sections, one dedicated to using the Manga Studio EX software, and the other giving general tips about creating Manga comics. Both sections are terribly light, with basic instructions but lacking the kind of depth or detail that other art books often offer. This is especially true of the section about creating comics, which is generic in its content--it really repeats basic comic advice that can be had in a dozen other books, without offering anything new.

The software itself (a trial comes with the book) seems an awful lot like Photoshop with a lot of preset custom brushes and such, but then lacking the versatility that PS offers to do more than Manga. Perhaps if the book had been dedicated solely to the program, and gone on from the basic-basics into highlighting tips, tricks, and tools more, I would see more value in it. As is, I couldn't recommend it.

As a user of Manga Studio EX, I wish there were more books that would have tapped into the secrets of the software. But fortunately, Steve Horton and Jeong Mo Yang have written a book titled "Professional Manga: Digital Storytelling with Manga Studio EX".

The book is targeted for those who want to utilize the software with their manga creations. Whereas it shows you how they get sketches and prepare it for the software, the book comes with a CD that includes the high-res images for every piece of art featured in the book plus a 20-page story done in high-res plus a demo-version of Manga Studio EX.

"Professional Manga" was created not technically of doing how-to projects (ie. Adobe's educational books for their software) but the book does get into basics of sketches and how they can be brought into the software and one can start working on their designs but at the same time, learning of the pitfalls of various tones and suggestions for the artist using the software for the first time.

Here is a breakdown of chapters featured in the book:

* CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
* CHAPTER 2: LINE ART
* CHAPTER 3 - SHADING AND TEXTURES
* CHAPTER 4 - SPEED LINES
* CHAPTER 5 - BLURRING
* CHAPTER 6 - PERSPECTIVE AND BACKGROUNDS
* CHAPTER 7 - TECHNOLOGY
* CHAPTER 8 - SOUND EFFECTS AND LETTERING
* CHAPTER 9 - OTHER SIDE OF THE TRACKS
* CHAPTER 10 - SINGLE PANEL ELEMENTS
* CHAPTER 11 - PANEL TO PANEL STORYTELLING
* CHAPTER 12 - PAGE-TO-PAGE STORYTELLING
* CHAPTER 13 - WRITING CONVENTIONS
* CHAPTER 14 - FORMATS AND SIZES
* CHAPTER 15 - PITCHING AND SELLING
* GLOSSARY
* APPENDIX 1 & 2 and INDEX

For the most part, the book is good for beginners. Especially learning how to utilize the right shading, action lines and various terminology for the beginning user of the program, who want to create their own manga. The good news is that the book is very good at introductions. May it be to line art, scanning your work into the software, line utilization and more. But the bad news is that the book is not step-by-step. With a lot of software such as Adobe PhotoShop and Adobe Illustrator, the software MANGA STUDIO EX has grown to become a popular software but for those who can draw or sketch or tell a story but are not computer literate may want to have something more helpful with step-by-step procedures.

The book has plenty of potential especially if the writers want to update it. But the difficulty right now is that there are not many books on the software and there sure is no "MANGA STUDIO EX for DUMMIES".

Each chapter features a good number of screen shots and for example, chapter 5 which is about blurring, has big screen captures and each page has a step-by-step explanation of how a certain blur (Gaussian) was utilized or in chapter 6 of how the magic wand tool can be used to eliminate a white background and one can use a background layer with another layer featuring a character.

There are chapters that I found quite informative such as Chapter 3 (Shading and Textures) and why its good to avoid moire patterns to inserting action lines, text and more. If anything, the book is more of a companion style of book and it works well in that capacity.

Overall, Steve Horton and Jeong Mo Yang do a very good job on that book in helping assist creative types who want to bring their work into Manga Studio EX but I know far too many people who give up on the software because they are lost or find it too difficult (especially if they are used to using Adobe products).

If you have messed around with the software and want positive advice from those who know the software well, this is a great companion book to assist you and hopefully get you ready in creating your first manga through Manga Studio EX but for those expecting something similar along the lines of Adobe's "Classroom in a Book", this is not that type of book.

But for those who are familiar with software like Adobe PhotoShop or Adobe Illustrator can benefit, because tools such as "magic wand", "lasso" or using certain types of blurs will come to play and be utilized with Manga Studio EX.

Last, I highly recommend purchasing this book new. Otherwise, if you are planning to purchase it used, please make sure the CD is included. It helps that the writers included high res images to experiment on and using the book as a guide to accomplish certain effects.

Overall, the book is well-conceived with probably the intermediate digital artist in mind but in the end, it all comes down to your proficiency as a digital/print artist and also have used the Manga Studio EX software. Beginners can also use this book as a reference guide and learn some key elements as well. So, this book is beginner and intermediate friendly.

Although, I still believe that there is a need for an in dept book like a "classroom in a book" for Manga Studio EX, both Horton and Yang do a good job in helping those bring their manga creations to life through the software. Definitely a book worth checking out!

More a 3.5 than 4.0 :)

Looking at this book from a purely objective artistic viewpoint, this is a good book as an instructional guide to using Manga Studio 3.0/4.0. Aside from the tutorial on how to use Manga Studio to achieve certain affects, it also covers some basics of the concept of "Manga". Manga as the comic book form of east asian cultures, and more specifically, the black and white variant.

The book also covers some comic book pre-press basics as well as pitching your work to various comic book publications, which isn't something new to me, but what I consider more helpful and informative than the "how to manga" or "how to with Manga Studio" aspects.

This is not a "how to draw" book, but a how to create manga using Manga Studio book, and in this sense, it does a decent job. I tested this on the Manga Studio 3.0 EX Demo provided on disc with the book. I am not sure how much more indepth a guide to the software could be, but in my opinion Manga Studio (the version I tested) was not all that intuitive.

I have provided some examples of what Manga Studio does. I took the short route because I work full time (a blessing these days) and am only showing how Manga Studio "manga-nizes" an imported image. The image is something I did and painted digitally with a type of watercolor effect and then imported into Manga Studio. As noted, the book does come with a $100 off Manga Studio EX coupon, however, it seems to be only usable at Smith Micro's website and not here via Amazon.

As for the manga aspect of things, "manga" would allow the aspiring artist to publish their work in a more economical fashion, yet still not skimp on some of the visual impact all that much.

Just keep in mind, "manga" is a style but be original and genuine. The provided images are my work so I don't have to worry about copyrights. ;)

This book certainly doesn't do a lot of hand-holding. It definitely seems to be more geared toward the professional manga artist than anyone intermediate or beginner.

As such it basically assumes you already know how to draw, how to draw manga, and are mostly looking to figure out how to draw manga USING "MANGA STUDIO EX" SOFTWARE.

So, if you don't already know how to draw or how to draw in the manga style, this book won't necessarily teach you. It will certainly fill you in on some of the conventions like speed lines, and texturing. It'll tell you how to tie various panels together with similar imagery or shared text / speech boxes. It mentions the typical parts of a story arc (discovery of a goal or problem, complication to resolving the problem or completing the goal and inevitable resolution). It'll tell you when to use thick lines for characters and objects (foreground / emphasis) versus thin lines (background objects).

If you're looking for an introductory book (that steps you through how to "draw manga / anime" in general), this is perhaps not it. If you're already proficient at drawing and are possibly already familiar with drawing manga specifically, this book will help somewhat with learning how to adapt to the world of manga creation using the Manga Studio EX 3.0 software. Granted, as of this writing, it's 2009, and this book refers to the "forthcoming" Manga Studio 4.0 in 2008. So, it feels like this book might yet be slightly outdated? One wonders whether a newer version is available...

On the plus side, the book does come with a trial version of the software, so you can see if it is something you might be comfortable with using on a permanent basis, before shelling out the big bucks for the full version. This copy also came with a coupon for $100 off the full version, should the reader care to step up to it.

I enjoy drawing and am always looking at new art books, from "Style School" and "Comickers," so when I saw this in Vine, I thought I'd give it a look. I understood that it was meant for users of Manga Studio EX (I own Manga Studio Debut), but the description also sounded like it would be good for anyone interested in creating manga.

Unfortunately, the book fails in both departments. First off, let me say that while the book has the fantastical claim that it comes with a code for "$100 off Manga Studio EX 3.0," note that EX 4.0 is out, so your $100 off is going towards an older version that I couldn't find on Smith Micro's website (granted it is the version "covered" in this book).

On the main front of it being a guidebook for users of Manga Studio EX, I found that it relied too much on the idea that readers would know what a lasso tool or a magic wand tool is. Sure, if you've used Photoshop, this isn't a problem, but if this book is supposed to act like a supplemental manual, there should be better explanations than "use the magic wand to select the background." Also on that note, there are surprisingly few step-by-step tutorials featuring detailed screenshots or explanations. It's like those old "how-to-draw-comics" on the back of the newspaper, where it's three steps and *poof* you've got this highly detail drawing of a superhero!

Then, coming from the perspective that it's a great book for all artists looking to make manga, "Professional Manga" also fails. I can't take an art book that covers shading chapters ahead of perspective seriously. And when that chapter on perspective is about ten sentences long, you've lost me. Without knowing proper perspective and, in tandem with that, lighting, how can you possibly know how to shade or tone properly? And then, the book offers up what is "good" and "bad" toning by showing multiple versions of different drawings. The problem is, it's never explained why one is better than the others. Sure, it may be visibly evident, but an explanation would go much further in teaching budding artists on the rules of shading/toning.

All is not bad, however, as some aspects of manga are nicely explained, such as action lines. It's true that manga and western comics do differ on various things, and having it explained for those looking to add a manga-feel to their art is nice.

Overall, I can't recommend this book, particularly at the price listed. The actual text could probably only fill a 20-page leaflet and the rest is drawings. The tutorials are bare-bones at best for both Manga Studio and art in general.

This book is a good introduction for learning the ins and outs of drawing manga and how to bring the art and stories to light. The sample software included helps to create life like drawings and allows the user to play with light and shadow and teaches people how to bring the look together in their own creative storytelling. The software is fun to play with if you have an interest in this artwork form. You can get a good idea of how to create with texture, line and other areas of manga to create and bring together your own ideas. This book includes only a sample of the software along with a coupon for a discount for Studio Ex. The book is filled with examples of how to draw Manga and incorporate the software for everyday use.

While I respect the authors and their attempt at trying to provide something different for users of Manga Studio Ex, the book is fairly useless if your goal is to learn Manga Studio. Furthermore, the book is basically a simplified explanation of the Manga creation and less about the software product. In fact, only 32 of the 240 pages (roughly 13.5% of the book) contains screen shots from the software. Most of the screen shots just show you what the artists are referring to with little to no explanation on how to utilize the software itself. Two of the selling points for the book are the CD-Rom with digital material from the book including a 30 day copy of the software and a coupon for $100 of the software. The digital material won't help you learn the software, but it will give you some practice materials to work with. The coupon is only useful if you purchase directly from Smith Micro. You'd save more money just purchasing the software from Amazon.com than buying from Smith Micro and using the coupon.

Frankly, if you want to learn how to use Manga Studio Ex or Debut, I would purchase the Dummies book because it does a much better job explaining the software, also contains digital files, and has a 30 day examination of the software on the CD-ROM that accompanies the book.

(I am not associated with Wiley - the publisher of the Dummies books - or the author of Manga Studio for Dummies)

Even if you don't want to draw Manga this is a wonderful insider's look at how it's done. My kid, on the other hand, has tried about everything illustrated and loves the book.

My teenage daughter loves to draw Manga and I got this book thinking about her. I can see that it would be something she could use to read up on it and use some of the techniques which are easy to follow. She does have a lot of drawing experience and might find much of the information to be basic but she also may enjoy just looking at the book and the art work in it. I do think, even though she has drawn Manga for awhile she could pick up some pointers from it. The book is organized well, and written well. The drawings are of a size that makes them pleasant to view and useful to see examples of the instructions. I'm sure for a beginner it would be worth the money. And for someone really into Manga as well. An expert drawer would probably not find much instructional, but then someone like that probably wouldn't be in the market for it. I personally don't draw but found reading the book and looking at the pictures and technique descriptions gave me a lot of insight into why she likes to do this kind of art. I attempted a few sketches and, following the suggestions found I was able to make them look close to what they should. And I have no drawing experience past what we all did as kids. This is a good book for beginners interested in the subject, and for people just looking for ideas or ways to fine tune skills in Manga drawing.