Customer Reviews

Manga Studio EX 4

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I work as a graphic designer for a living, and my typical tools of the trade are illustrator and flash. I've also used photoshop and opencanvas, opencanvas being my usual tool for digital painting. Being that I'm always drawing for others, I never have the time to do any drawing for myself, which includes figure drawing. If I happened to have the extra time to spend on drawing for myself, that time was spent sketching the figure and inking it, which took many hours and usually resulted in me never getting around to getting past the sketch phase.

BUT this program, I've discovered, is a MASSIVE time saver. If I don't want to sketch out a figure (laziness)or am struggling with a perspective, all I have to do is use the 3d model option in this program, tweak it as I please, and then trace over it (for people who aren't used to working in 3d, it may be somewhat frustrating at first to pose a figure yourself. For beginners, the program comes with many preset poses). Of course you won't find any sort of muscle tone on the 3d models (aside from a few arms and legs that cannot be posed), and the anatomy is pretty much anime, so if you want a realistic figure you need to know a thing or two about anatomy. Draw just anime? I's already poifect!

Using a 3d model as an aid, I was able to sketch out an accurate figure in under a half hour. It ordinarily might have taken me two or three hours with constant erasing, considering the difficult perspective I was using. You can also tweak your light source, which aids in shading while using weird perspectives.

And then of course the inking tools are AMAZING! The strokes produced are absolutely beautiful, look real, and it auto corrects, too, which is great if you don't have a very steady hand. This results in very little erasing. Another excellent feature is a tool that allows you to draw a straight line and then bend it to exactly where you want it over your sketch lines. This tool is perfect for drawing long flowing hair or folds in fabric It literally saves HOURS. Do some tweaks with that tool's settings and you can make it look like real ink strokes. Also, don't like a line width and want to tweak it? So long as you inked using vectors, you can use a tool to adjust the line's position or width. It's awesome! And if you don't like hard lines and prefer a pencil-like feel but still want to have the control? You can simply reduce the opacity and apply a blur to the outlines, making them look like gorgeous pencil strokes.

The only major downside with this program is that digital painting can be somewhat difficult, since it really seems to lend itself to cel shading. You have to be extremely careful and liberal with layers (which is okay because they are unlimited) to get the painted effect you like, in addition to turning the opacity of the brush tool way down. Patience is an extreme virtue, especially if you use the blend tool on your colors, which will muck your work up fast if you don't pay very close attention. It's the one thing that annoys me, since in other programs I've used, painting is easier. And I've seen many people export their line art into other programs just to paint them. However, once you get the hang of the tools, you can do some gorgeous shading. Also, you can do selective gradients with COMPLETE EASE, a feature that I've never really gotten the grasp of in other programs; it adds richness to all of your shading and highlights, lemme tell you.

I have yet to use any screen tones or a lot of the tools for the use of making comics or manga, but I suspect they are very good.

Oh, and this program comes with a perspective ruler that'll give you your horizon line and all of that other good stuff, so if you are doing backgrounds containing stairs or whatever you please, you don't need to go through the trouble of measuring things out. It does it for you. SAVES HOURS.

All of those features and more allowed me to complete a very intricate digital painting in 8 hours as opposed to 20+. If you want to be efficient, I suggest you buy this program, because it'll pay for itself in the long run.

This is really terrific stuff. I was impressed by EX3 but this new release blows that out of the water. EX4 is exceptionally feature-rish and powerful.

My only one complaint - that cost it from getting 5-stars (for me anyway) - was the situation with the Manual. Using this software is bordering on taking a University course and to expect us to traverse the package via a PDF manual is ludicrous.

I shot off the PDF Manual to Kinkos and had a double-sided, laser color copy made made within a few hours. And yes, of course that then cost me MORE than I paid for the software itself (the manual is hundreds of pages long) but I have no regrets whatsoever. No books on Manga Studio that I could see - unlike Smith Micro's other packages such as POSER and Anime Studio, which I also own.

Classy, solid software that performs.

This is "better" version from Manga Studio Debut 4. It has more features and is much more professional. Although the price is quite steep if you're serious about art and creating authentic looking manga this is the best tool. Even if its not for a manga, the built in patterns and different pens and brushes is worth the price. It's better than Photoshop because its not at all complicated to understand, but more complicated than Open Canvas, Corel Painter and SAI.
However if you can speak Japanese or is willing to wait for the English version - I recommend IllustStudio. From the same creators but with more tools and 3D imaging added. It's like SAI mixed with Photoshop and Poser. It's a lot less expensive BUT it is geared more towards regular artists rather than mangakas.

I was skeptical that this would provide any value beyond Photoshop, as a drawing tool. However, I am pleasantly surprised. There are a number of features that make this quicker and easier to use Photoshop, and some that I just can't find in Photoshop. I find that they make it easier to create art. You don't need to know the in depth underpinnings of Photoshop to get something done.
For example: Page definitions are pre-set up for you. Adding a page to a manga is just a click. A Simple click to change from pencil drawing to ink mode or coloring mode. (although Photoshop has better coloring tools.) Simple drag screen tones to your selection.
Here's a really great idea: Simply drag a preset manga panel layouts to your page. Each panel on the page is set up like a layers folder and auto-clips anything you draw in the layers underneath. It doesn't prevent you from drawing outside the panel, it just auto-clips the final version of what you see.
Another that I find saves me so much time. A simple selection tool transparent pop-up when you make a selection. It lets you easily move, cut, copy, clear the selection without using the keyboard. So instead of crazy ambidextrous maneuvers of keyboard and pen, its right there on the screen for you, just a pen-flick away.
Another that I found I love is the ruler. It's like taking a ruler to a piece of paper and inking those lines that need to be crisp and perfect. It just makes a little more intuitive sense than vector drawing, and frankly is easier to use.
The last feature that I love, because i'm not a great artist, is the auto-correct feature. Turn up the correction modifier as you ink and it straightens out the jitter of you hand as you ink those curves. All of the sudden you have a rock-steady hand on a crazy jittery pen-tablet.

I own many different graphics art software programs. I really enjoy using this software. It's easy to navigate, but the learning curve is fairly steep to determine all of the ins-and-outs of the program.

One note of caution I do have relates to the documentation. While ex4's documentation is better than ex 3's, the user manual is one of the worst I've ever read. While the user manual is useful if you need to figure something out simple, do not expect a lot of explanation in the process.

Furthermore, the SmithMicro website is pretty much not useful for MangaStudio. If you are using Poser, there is a lot of relevant content (that's up-to-date), but the Manga Studio content is out of date and most of the help files are for Manga Studio 3.

While I like the product, the support for the product is really shoddy at best.

I love this product. It is so fun and does pen and pencil emulation like no other product I have ever used. Photoshop, Painter, ArtRage, you name it, I have tried it. This is the best.

I noticed that my work goes by much more fast paced with this program than with photoshop CS4, Paint tool SAI, or traditional paper. The brushes and tools available give the imaging much more depth to it, and it is fun to use. However, I am using a pen tablet for this. When I use it with a mouse or track-pad, it does not have as great a productivity rate. However, as it is still a quicker way to make comics and manga than photoshop, whether using mouse, track-pad, or tablet, you will have a faster rate. I recommend to all artists that are serious in their progress and in art itself.

I did a ton of research and came close to buying SketchPro--but this software is way more than what I expected. The pencil looks and feels natural. Clients have no idea that I've switched to digital sketches. Photoshop doesn't even come close. And I love Photoshop! Though, I have to say that I still tend do my coloring in Photoshop. This seems to be Manga's only downfall--the coloring feels clumsy (with the pallette and all). If your a current photoshop user then the learning curve is no problem. I have my own illustration studio and saving time is a must...this product does just that. No more paper/pencils/erasing-like-crazy/inking/scanning/touch-ups. I currently use a Cintiq with the software.

This product is especially useful if you have a tablet. It's worth buying if you're serious about drawing (especially for black and white comics), even though the price is steep. Since buying it, not a day goes by that I regret my purchase.

Unlike MS Debut 4, EX has many more tone, including explosions for back grounds and more natural effects and designs.

The basic set up and running of the program is easy to follow like Debut, but the expansion of the content is well worth the buy.