ciciluna asked:
I use Manga Studio but it ends up being for very basic things, pretty much bitmap editing and tones. I like to do my penciling with the single-width marker tool. It keeps me from getting obsessive and/or redundant with pencil strokes. Here’s a penciled page in MS:
I pencil in the MS default “non-photo blue” color, and export it to my printer at 30% opacity. I find this color doesn’t scan at all, and is dark enough to see clearly while inking. It will depend on your printer and scanner though.
After inking I import the page back into Manga Studio as a TIF bitmap image, and do all the cleanup and adjust the letters and stuff.
Here’s a 42.5 line tone layer with 10% darkness. I like to keep a template file with darkness layers ranging from 5% to 45% or so. It saves a lot of time, and you can always change and duplicate them.
The tone layers are easy to use. They pretty much function as bitmap layers and you can paint or draw with or erase them. I recommend going no denser than 42.5 lines with your dot tones, otherwise you risk some patterning issues when it goes to print (I learned this the hard way, through a very arduous proofing process on my first book). You can totally just use the fill bucket on tone layers without worrying about trapping, if it’s all black and white.
Other than that, I know MS is supposedly good for perspective tools and panel tools and stuff, but I have no idea how that works. I use MS as a Photoshop with more accessible bitmap and tone editing functions. There is definitely more to explore. The best way to learn is by doing!!
and psst my name is spelled Meredith
