
(Note: EX is the more advanced version.)Ĭontrary to what's been said elsewhere, there is at least one significant difference between Manga Studio and Clip Studio Paint: Clip Studio Paint has a timeline and frame by frame animation tools. If you have Manga Studio 5 EX or Pro, you can download Clip Studio Paint EX or Pro for free at Smith-Micro's website. The word balloon library and tool allows you to drag and drop balloons into place before adding text (text can also be imported in).įont and text formatting are superb, and the ability to export to BMP, JPEG, PNG, PSD, TGA, TIFF, PDF or upload to a blog or social networking site excellently rounds things off.Clips Studio is the latest version of Manga Studio. This is great to use, with the new cell borders added as Layers with effects such as speed lines and backgrounds available for extra punch.ĭebut's text support is also good. Panel Ruler Cutter works by carving sketches into cells with a range of styles to choose from. Preset colour libraries are bundled too, helping suggest interesting colours for your illustrated creations. The texture intelligently fills the area to which it's dragged, combining with other textures for an interesting and effective range of finishes, which can be perfected with the new Dodge, Blur and Blend tools to refine your shading and line work.Ĭolouring works in a similar manner, with a simple mixing palette and editable swatch library available, and precision choices made through an RGB colour slider. Of these, there are now 2,300 bundled screen tones, including 80 pattern brushes for adding shading, halftone effects and a range of character embellishments in a drag-and-drop motion. This is a very effective process, and prepares artwork for adding word balloons, tones and other page furnishings. A new Layer is created, and the Pen and Brush tools are easy to adjust and edit mishaps with, while a semi-smart function snaps to the underlying sketch outlines. The second-stage inking process is a simple and effective way of outlining sketches. Image imports are placed as new layers, meaning a mix of imported and original elements can be layered independently on the canvas.


Once the methods and toolsets are clear, you can import a scanned sketch as a PSD, TIFF, JPEG or a range of other formats, or use the Pen and Brush tools to create from scratch.

It's an effective way of getting to grips with the core tools, and quickly offers the confidence to start experimenting in the sketching and colouring process.
