Hi guys! It's been some few days since the last entry, I know today is not Monday, but I wanted to write this article about my thoughts on the new Manga Studio 5 from the company Smith Micro, Inc.
The first thing I thought when I opened the program was: "Whoa! It changed a lot from last version, such an amazing change and has a nice and clean interface. It surely looks more friendly". And well to be honest what I thought on the beginning is becoming better and better while I'm testing the tools and the markers.
Most of the content is still being the same, but in the tool bar you can look at the new brushes preview, get more information about the pressure, density, texture and other cool features. The brushes look even better than in last version. It feels more like drawing on a real paper sheet with a real pencil, so that's one of the things that really got me, because I do a lot of sketches, so I need a good pencil tool to doing it, for now I can say the pencil tool in the new Manga Studio 5 is the best one I've ever used!
What I did not like in Manga Studio EX 4.0 was the horrible interface, It looked like some old drawing software, the tool bars were not as clear as the new ones. The program looked more for an engineer rather for an artist.
Here are my pros and cons about the new Manga Studio 5:
Pros:
- The pencil tool has a really good feel, it is like using a real pencil on a real paper.
- The brushes are more organized and have a little preview, so you can compare with others before clicking on one.
- Attractive interface, it looks modern and soft, the program looks less stressing with this new interface.
- For me that I run the program on Windows, it is a really fast program, the older version gave me one or two problems when the screen was frozen, or I couldn't use Photoshop and Manga Studio EX 4.0 at the same time.
- The preview of the tones is really awesome, you can see the tones clearly and separated in themes.
- There are some cool resources, the new poses and beginner's assistant are really good for people to get in touch with the program.
Cons:
- No font preview, that's really a shame, you need to pick and pick a font to get the one you want, not like in programs like word that you can see a little preview.
- It is harder to find the "Panel creator" or the tool to put panels. I had to search for a tutorial on Youtube for this, you can see it here.
- I don't know if it is only me, but the program looks a little like Paint Tool SAI.
- God please, It is really addictive!!
So for now that's my view about the new Manga Studio 5. I hope you liked it, if you have any thoughts about your experience in this new program I'd love to read your comments! So, that's for now! We will see soon on Monday with a new entry! Have a nice Weekend!
I invite you to read my Webcomic Ereggia, I'm doing this Webcomic using Manga Studio!
To see more drawings from Manga Studio 5 or other related artwork from Rizian Larc you can take a look to the Facebook Fan Page or Twitter Account!
Previous Posts:
Tutorial: Draw Women Hair
12 Tips for Webcomic Beginners
Tutorial: Create Scenery/Background
How to get used to your Tablet
Improve your sketch abilities in 10 steps
LOl Why the "SAI look" is in the "cons"? Thats good for me!!! Good post, btw
ReplyDeleteThanks a lot Hamilton! Yes, it is for the Icons, the Chromatic circle looks a little like SAI too hehe. Maybe I was using SAI too much! hehe. ^-^
DeleteI'd say the colour wheel is a definite pro, I've always like SAI's colour wheel. Wouldn't it be great the have the best of both worlds in one program?
ReplyDeleteI use 4 EX and although it's a great drawing tool, I'm not too good at using it (I'm especially fighting with tones and having a hard time getting smooth, sharp lines even though I use a pen tablet). I'm also no fan of the UI and I'm having the notorious "Wacom issue" so I can't use my tablet in mouse mode. I hope Manga Studio 5 will be more noob-proof than 4 EX. I'm especially curious about the 3-D models!
The newer version still needs some work, for me it looks more like a drawing program than a program for making a Comic. It is a great tool and has a really good interface, that's really well planned for new people on this software, that's a really important point. I still find the version 4 EX more reliable for making a comic, but for illustration in general Manga Studio 5 is really interesting. Thank you a lot for you valuable feedback! ^-^
Delete(the same anonymous as the one that posted on March 8th) Yeah, now I've explored MS5 more I still prefer 4 EX for comics, especially since tones and me somehow disagree with each other in MS5. By the way, if you'd have any tips on drawing straight and smooth lines with a pen tablet that'd be great, because I just can't seem to pull it off even with all possible kinds of stabilisors on, that's how unsteady my hand is! T_T
ReplyDeleteI'm currently drawing a comic on Manga Studio 4 EX, but the newer version is pretty complete for illustration artwork! I just did some time ago a entry about "How to get used to your tablet" With some exercises: You can see it here: http://rizianlarc.blogspot.com/2012/12/consejos-para-acostumbrarse-la-tableta.html
DeleteI've been searching everywhere about this and maybe you can help me!! ;A; i installed this manga studio but i can't use the materials! it says they're installed but in the materials window nothing appears! Dx
ReplyDeleteI had the same problem some months ago, what I did is to uninstall the whole program, and use the CCleaner to delete it completely from my computer, then I Installed first the software, then the materials.
DeleteThe possible reason in that the site where you downloaded Manga Studio 5 has this part of the file broken, so you can always try another download site or buying the Software.
Thanks for your reply :3 and i think i'll give up ( ;A;) i downloaded it again from other sites but still the same problem ( TT__TT) i don't know what else i can do ( u.u) anyway thank you so much for your help (*≧▽≦)ﾉｼ))
DeleteNice review. I would add to the Pros: Not bad for $80! BTW, we have been working on creating a tutorial site for Manga Studio 5. If you have a chance, drop by @ http://www.Mangastudiosensei.com
ReplyDeleteThanks.
One thing I found about MS4 ex and haven't seen much improvement on in MS 5 is entering text. While it does have awesome resizable speech bubbles they seem to be geared toward the requirements of Japanese text. Programs like Inkscape can wrap text inside an eliptical speech bubble or even a totally randomly shaped geometric figure. There is no word wrap in MS at all, only newline characters cause a new line. Change one word and you'll be arrow keying through the entire text fixing everything. A lot is made of the ability to change the size of the bubbles, but in English printing normal speech text should be in the same font size in every bubble. Changing the size of the bubbles in MS though changes the SIZE of the text instead of just reflowing it. I suspect these problems probably stem from differences in English printing conventions and Japanese written language, but of course that's just a guess. Even when I've produced comics in MS4, I've always given up and done the text bubbles in GIMP or Inkscape. Smith Micro seems to be just the American Marketing source for MS (comic studio in Japan), the actual Japanese producers of the program don't seem to be very concerned about this.
ReplyDeleteIsn't Manga Studio 5 the same as clip studio paint, just a package version?If I am right, there IS a way to see a preview of the fonts...At the bottom of the little window opened to chose a font there are 3 little squares, one of then just show the fonts' name; the second, the fonts' name written in the font, and the last a sample of the font: numbers and ABCDEF... I'm sorry if I am wrong...
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