CAA: Christian Anime Alliance

I just ran across a piece of software that I though some people on this sight would find vary interesting. Its called Manga Studio Debut 3.0

Go To The Apple Store and type in "Manga Studio Debut"

Manga Studios websight

I noticed that they have a free trial on the Manga studios web-sight.

Any comments?


Wave.

i had that on my christmas wish list.

I have it on my computer, although I haven't gotten the chance to use it much yet. It seems to have a lot of similar functions as Photoshop, although you can only work with tones and not colors (as far as I can tell). x3 Eventually I'll tone one of my doodles, yay~

It bites.

It has one of the most confusing interfaces I've used in a while, and it takes the professional version for the inking tool to be useful, and for most of the screentones to work AND for the speech bubbles. It REQUIRES a tablet, and so far as I've seen from the demo it dosn't have the best of instructions.

It also REQUIRES a gig of ram and will inform you of it EVERY TIME you start the program. The demo dosn't save in a format that exports anywhere, and I don't know how well it handles photoshop or how it exports TO photoshop.

I demo'd it. I delete'd it.

It requires a GIG of ram?! Ahh my poor little lap.

I'd like to see if there were any significant improvements from the trial to the professional version with any of the issues you've found, Mechana. I might find it fun if I can get used to the interface (and if it can export to photoshop I'll do that, otherwise I could always use screenshots but that's not exactly desirable). Still, the confusing interface and lack of photoshop compatability doesn't sound good. To be honest, all I'd be looking for in the program would be a good inking tool, screentones and speech bubbles. Still, I can always emulate it in photoshop. I just wonder if it could be easier in Manga Studio.

So, Is there any thing better out there?

Wow, VERY helpful thread. XD Seriously. I unofficially had it on my Christmas list, but only the Professional version because I know half the features only work if you get that version. But being $300, I and no one I know has the money for that.

Now I know it's not worth it. I use Deleter ComicWorks for my toning actually. It's just that there aren't THAT many tones to choose from...

Thanks for the info mechana! XD

Yeah... I wasn't in the mood to spend 300 dollars for the few things that I did like about it, namely the panel rulers and the little bit of toning I got to test out. I WOULD be interested in finding out if the issues I had were resolved in the official pro version, but I'm not willing to pay that much to find out.

(One of the features I REALLY wanted to try, the speech bubbles feature, is NOT active in the demo. Neither is any export feature, or most of the import features. This **** me off pretty bad since its a 30 day demo, and they didn't even bother to let my try all of the program.)

As for inking, I've actualy found the brush tool in Illustrator to be passable for digital inking when set up right.

On another note how is Deleter comic works, how's it work?

Wow, this actually makes me glad I'm in the dark ages of using ziptone and an x-acto knife.

Denimcat - I was using a toning set with the knife and all originally... That is, until I cut my finger pretty good with it. Nothing requiring stitches or anything. Just painful. XD

mechana - not sure exactly how to answer about how ComicWorks works. I mean, it has preset manga templates that you can use, or you can specify your own sizes. You have to pretty much either draw the page in the program, or use another prgram to draw something, because it imports all files in black and white only. So sketches come out pretty bad, especially if done only in pencil. What I do is make a pencil sketch, scan it, and then trace over it within the program to clean up all the lines. As for toning, you select areas and fill them with tone. Tone-on-tone is a little more complicated, but not by much. I myself have found few programs I really like to use for drawing, because some of them have all these complicated tools and stuff that I'll never use. I did need the manual a couple times on this one, but overall it's really easy to use. And $100 instead of $300. I also use CGIllust for all my colored images ($60). That one is really easy to use too.

Wave wrote:So, Is there any thing better out there?

Really, Photoshop or Illustrator are your best bet.

And I guess MSPaint is pretty awesome too.

Kool! Thanks JC!