[X] My Assistant

Nice review L.J, with such interesting tips I might give another try on Google Sketchup.

And congrats for your pinned thread, cheers ^^

(IMG:[blog.wineenthusiast.com] http://blog.wineenthusiast.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/champagne_toast.jpg)

hiccup

Manga Studio EX

Overview ( From their home site )
The Professional Solution for Creating Manga and Comics!
The world's leading comic and manga creation software, Manga Studio EX 4.0 delivers powerful cutting edge drawing and coloring tools, making it essential for professional comic and manga artists.
Choose from over 3,000 screen tones or create your own.
Resize with no loss in quality by converting your bitmap drawings to resolution-independent vector images.
Export to a wide variety of formats such as bmp, jpeg, png, psd, tga, eps (monochrome only), tiff, pdf and pict (Mac only).
Draw naturally with a pen tablet and recreate the sensation of drawing on paper offering an incredibly natural drawing experience.
Simplify your layout and design process with easy to use features such as a variety of built-in rulers that save you time.
Color artwork using the integrated tool set enabling you to mix and blend for custom color work.
Convert 2D images to line and tone data by using the 2DLT Rendering function.
Import 3D objects and easily transform them into tone and line drawings by using the 3DLT rendering function.
Add speed line and focus line effects in seconds to express motion or moods.
Work with precision using unlimited layers.
Select from a suite of advanced filters to quickly apply distortions and special effects to your artwork.

System Requirements
Windows: Windows 7, XP Home Edition (Service Pack 2), Windows XP Professional (Service Pack 2) , Windows XP Tablet PC Edition, Windows Vista Home Basic, Windows Vista Home Premium, Windows Vista Business, Windows Vista Ultimate., [XP] Intel Pentium Processor or AMD Processor 500MHz or higher (1.0GHz and more is preferred.); [Vista] Intel Pentium Processor or AMD Processor 800MHz or higher (2.0GHz and more is preferred.), [XP] 256MB RAM minimum (512 MB or more recommended); [Vista] 512MB RAM minimum (1.0 GB RAM or more recommended.), 1.1 GB or more disk space (1.7 GB or more recommended), XGA (1,024 x 768), SXGA (1,280 x 1,024) 16-bit color display, Pen Tablet (recommended): Wacom Bamboo, Graphire, Intuos, Cintiq, PL series etc., Printer (optional): 600 dpi or 1,200 dpi laser printer recommended, Scanner (optional): TWAIN 32 compatible, and CD-ROM Drive.
Mac: OS X 10.5 or higher, Intel Processors and PowerPC G5, G4 processor 867 MHz or faster, 1 GB RAM, 1.1 GB hard disk space, >WXGA (1280 x 800), SXGA (1280 x 1024) 24-bit color display, Pen Tablet (recommended) Wacom FAVO, Bamboo, Intuos, Cintiq, PL series etc., TWAIN 32 flatbed scanner (optional), CD-ROM Drive.

Links:
SmithMicro - [manga.smithmicro.com] http://manga.smithmicro.com/ms_ex.html

Screenshots: ( Taken from Google Results )

Review (The program itself is very intimidating at first will all the controls and the tools laid out for beginners. I think watching some YOUTUBE tutorials will help you get accustomed to it easily. )

The program is VERY good at handling lineart, it has a range of NIBS to choose from and the correction ( which is equal to smoothing in SAI ) is much more controllable in real time. From pencil sketch to actual Manga pages, it is built to make them even PROs use them. So far I'm loving my transition from using Pencil in MS to the Pen ( Kabura ) for inking my linearts. I haven't tried much the tones included in the program but I think applying it to the lineart is as easy as pasting it over the pages then just use the eraser tool to cut them.
This program also has many built in dialogue boxes: Normal, Surprised, Sad, Announcement, Whisper ... and so on.

I haven't done any coloring with Manga Studio but seeing the guys in Youtube doing great work I guess it's also built to be a coloring software with a level comparable to Gimp or more.

OpenCanvas 5.5 (my review is based on 4.5 features, since I haven't upgraded yet)

Homepage: [www.portalgraphics.net] http://www.portalgraphics.net/en/

(IMG:[www.portalgraphics.net] http://www.portalgraphics.net/images/oc/oc5_pro_img01.jpg)

Summary:
Mainly a drawing/painting program, fast performance, easy to use (especially the older versions like open Canvas 3, still offers most features you might demand from a drawing software, color mixing is not perfect (worse than in Painttool SAI or Painter, but better than many other programs) and once you are used to it you can work around its edges just fine
- automatically records your drawing steps, which you can later save as event file and replay in normal speed or fast forward. You can also upload them onto their online gallery: [www.portalgraphics.net] http://www.portalgraphics.net/pg/
where you can watch the pictures get drawn, f.e. this [www.portalgraphics.net] picture
- formats: its own formats and some basic formats like psd, jpg, png, bmp
- not much vector support (only raster layers etc). Can do basic editing jobs well and has some filters available as well.

Imo the event feature is really nice as long as you keep your drawing mainly in this program. It offers a nice entertainment value when you can watch how you drew pictures 5 years ago. I always had a good time with oC 3, oC 4.0 or oC 4.5 and basically sticked to a bunch of brush/tool templates over the years. Painttool SAI might be a bit better in terms of painting feel, but oC feels a bit better in managing many layers, adjusting values and stuff like that.

I've used Paint tool Sai is a great program ...
Very light, does not consume a lot of RAM, little tricky at first and quite useful for coloring and sketching the only bad thing I used with mouse so I had a good experience.
sorry for my english (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/cry.gif)

Hey Guys here's some more alternatives to use programs =)

[alternativeto.net] http://alternativeto.net/software/painttool-sai/

NEKO PAINT

Website: [www2.tbb.t-com.ne.jp] http://www2.tbb.t-com.ne.jp/neko_paint/

NekoPaint may be downloaded and evaluated for free, however a license must be purchased for continued use.
There is currently no enforced time limit for the evaluation.

Summary:
I tried this program for a few minutes and noticed it has the same feature like SAI but lacking in brushes and other effects ... one thin I love about this is the Symmetry ( Mirror Effect ) and the ROT Symmetry ( Look at the first pic .... )

Download: See Attachments haha I included both ( Scan with a Anti-Virus first )

 npaint135full.zip ( 5.2mb ) Number of downloads: 126
 npaint1062en3.zip ( 1.74mb ) Number of downloads: 134

It works on Windows Vista so I guess it works on XP and 7 .... very minial requirement considering my old laptop with 1GB RAM ...

Screenshots:

This post has been edited by Juggle: Jan 17 2013, 21:12

This is quite informative, but unfortunately I am quite oldschool.

A few years ago, I've gone as far as to buy a Cintiq, one of those touchscreen pads from Wacom that you could draw on directly. It was quite literally awesome-sauce.

However, I ended up selling it a few months later. I couldn't grasp the Corel Painter program beyond your basic drawing tools. But more importantly, I couldn't "get into" drawing digitally. I felt separated from it, and I also felt like my lines were inaccurate and messy.

Granted, I'm not a great artist, but I have always felt like a pencil on paper was the best route for me. I couldn't even ink very well on the cintiq, after scanning in my drawings, so I eventually gave up on that, sold the cintiq, and went back to my paper/pencil media.

Granted, it's probably my own lack of practice and skills, but the digital route just wasn't for me.

So... advice for the day to those who are thinking of picking up creating digitally: Try for a while before you buy if possible, and do what feels right for you.

OpenCanvas 5.5 (my review is based on 4.5 features, since I haven't upgraded yet)

Homepage: [www.portalgraphics.net] http://www.portalgraphics.net/en/

(IMG:[www.portalgraphics.net] http://www.portalgraphics.net/images/oc/oc5_pro_img01.jpg)

Summary:
Mainly a drawing/painting program, fast performance, easy to use (especially the older versions like open Canvas 3, still offers most features you might demand from a drawing software, color mixing is not perfect (worse than in Painttool SAI or Painter, but better than many other programs) and once you are used to it you can work around its edges just fine
- automatically records your drawing steps, which you can later save as event file and replay in normal speed or fast forward. You can also upload them onto their online gallery: [www.portalgraphics.net] http://www.portalgraphics.net/pg/
where you can watch the pictures get drawn, f.e. this [www.portalgraphics.net] picture
- formats: its own formats and some basic formats like psd, jpg, png, bmp
- not much vector support (only raster layers etc). Can do basic editing jobs well and has some filters available as well.

Imo the event feature is really nice as long as you keep your drawing mainly in this program. It offers a nice entertainment value when you can watch how you drew pictures 5 years ago. I always had a good time with oC 3, oC 4.0 or oC 4.5 and basically sticked to a bunch of brush/tool templates over the years. Painttool SAI might be a bit better in terms of painting feel, but oC feels a bit better in managing many layers, adjusting values and stuff like that.

Finally, someone who uses opencanvas like me, & yes those event files are really helpful.

P.S. Do you know of any other program w/ the hand tool?

This post has been edited by loire: Feb 17 2013, 00:30

Is PS6 any more noticeable than its predecessors?

Is PS6 any more noticeable than its predecessors?

It's cooler looking.

Is PS6 any more noticeable than its predecessors?

It's good for animation timelines and going into 3d movies and images, but if you have no use for that don;t waste the money. The same pen tools, hard brushed, airbrushes and other art tools generally exists in all versions of photoshop and elements. (CS2 might still be free on adobes site for joining) long story short, if you want something for drawing anime, this is not all all the direction to go, and depending on the version it's $800.

i personally don't use Sai, but for people who want to draw anime and comics and what i've seen you generally post its a better choice. plus you can take the left over cash and take classes, and i don't mean that in a dick way, everyone should at least take a life drawing course or two, since this is kinda the "what should I invest in as an artist?" thread

We have lots of software here, but how about hardware? Which tablet do you use?

Graphire 2, 6 inch screen with 512 levels of pressure.

Wacom Intuos 3 12"x9"

Wacom Bamboo. Considering I'm poor and a beginner, it's perfect for me.

Wacom Bamboo Fun ( small color gray ) the CTE-450 model XD

I think Manga Studio 5.0 was released a few months ago ... and another application like SAI ... I haven't tested it yet but seems decent ... CLIP STUDIO PAINT PRO v1.2.3 does anyone tried this yet?

Do any of you, per chance, have noticed some trouble using a tablet and Photoshop at the same time?

Do any of you, per chance, have noticed some trouble using a tablet and Photoshop at the same time?

hah, alll the time, it can be jittery as fuck