Choice of Drawing Software

[RedVampyr]

As of tonight I am a SAI user. Thanks to everyone who helped by stating what they felt was good about Sai. Now I have no reason to not do digital art lol.

Yokura, I'm guessing your avatar was done in SAI by you? It's really pretty!

[LateWhiteRabbit]

I'm a Clip Studio Paint Pro user and I have to say the program is excellent. It is like a mashup of Photoshop and Paint Tool Sai, and many artist like it for this reason. Also, if you can't afford Photoshop, CSP is a good alternative because there are a lot of similar features.

The downside is that there are too many features and they can be a little complex... I swear, I spent months trying to figure out the Brush Engine and I still don't have the basics of it >___> Speaking of brushes, I'm not a fan of the default brushes so I bought a lot of custom brushes from Frenden.

Oh, and Clip Studio Paint Pro = Manga Studio 5. They're the same program, just repackaged. I think you can get MS5 on Amazon for $30.

Yeah, this is a really good recommendation.

I had tried out Manga Studio 4 once and hated it. For some reason (Boredom? My utter distaste at Adobe adopting a subscription model?) I tried out Manga Studio 5 a few months ago and loved it. Basically, Manga Studio 5 straight-up stole Photoshop's interface. They seriously just copied CS6's interface - and I love them for it. 90% of the hotkeys are even the same as Photoshop. (And I changed the ones that weren't, so it IS identical now.)

Manga Studio 5 feels like someone took all the tools and features I use for illustration in Photoshop and made them better while stripping out all the photo editing tools I hardly use. The Filters available in Manga Studio 5 are, no joke, the exact same ones I use Photoshop - and no more. It is uncanny.

But the biggest win for Manga Studio 5 (up to now, all those things just make it a slimmer, lighter version of what I already have) is that the brush engine is worlds better than Photoshop. In Photoshop, drawing with a Wacom tablet, I feel like I have maybe 60-70% of the control I do on paper. That feeling jumps to 90% when I'm drawing in Manga Studio, and the marks and inking tools are just SO good. I was drawing for a week before I realized I hadn't opened Photoshop in all that time. Manga Studio 5 / Clip Paint Pro definitely took some of the chore out of digital sketching.

At this point I feel like I'm only going back to Photoshop out of habit and familiarity. (15 years+ experience with it.) However, I find myself using Manga studio 5 more and more ....

[MaiMai]

I'm pretty relieved I still have my copy of Manga Studio 5 then. I probably won't be investing time into using it soon, but I do like the smoothness of the pen tools and the fact that there are plenty of features that are pretty much Photoshop stuff without the photo editing. So yeah, backup program for me! (I like researching and hoarding some digital programs don't mind me).

I hope the number of custom brushes for the program increases, if there's one thing I am really fond about Photoshop is the wealth of custom brushes other users share for free. And they're so USEFUL (such as landscape/texture brushes).

[sendo]

Hey RedVampyr glad you chose SAI! I'm a SAI user myself (plus Photoshop). In case you're just starting out and don't know the basics of the program yet, I suggest taking a look at this youtube video, it demonstrates some shortcuts and a few features: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u869WDFGhJU

And wow I've been hearing a lot of good things about Manga Studio recently, now I'm reaaaally tempted to try it again. Wasn't interested before because I didn't have the time to learn another complex tool, but now that I'm pretty much at home with both SAI and PS, I really want to give this shiny thing a spin, glad this discussion came up.

[LateWhiteRabbit]

And wow I've been hearing a lot of good things about Manga Studio recently, now I'm reaaaally tempted to try it again. Wasn't interested before because I didn't have the time to learn another complex tool, but now that I'm pretty much at home with both SAI and PS, I really want to give this shiny thing a spin, glad this discussion came up.

Yeah, like I said, I tried Manga Studio 4 as a trial and hated it. I found the interface clunky and weird and overly complicated. Like you, I didn't care to spend a long time learning another piece of software. But with Manga Studio 5, everything is identical to Photoshop, so I was drawing using my regular routines, methods, and hotkeys almost instantly. The change apparently annoyed the crap out of Manga Studio 4 users, but it seems to have been very successful in luring in Photoshop users by reducing the learning curve to near zero for them.

[MaiMai]

I was given Manga Studio 4 Debut as a gift and yeah, Manga Studio 5 is just a huge improvement overall. The former software just doesn't translate to more current OSes like Windows 7, 8, or Apple's OSes. It has more staying power now that 5 has the drawing fluidity of SAI and the capabilities of Photoshop.

[Yokura]

As of tonight I am a SAI user. Thanks to everyone who helped by stating what they felt was good about Sai. Now I have no reason to not do digital art lol.

Yokura, I'm guessing your avatar was done in SAI by you? It's really pretty!

Can't go wrong with SAI! It's such a smooth and clean program. Have fun with your art!

Yea, it was done in SAI. Thanks! <3

Speaking of clip paint studio, the same makes me really tempted to give it a go.

[curry nochi rice]

I have given Krita a chance.

first impression:
>resource heavy
> dunno if slight delay in output is intentional or my system's just lagging.
>overall dark feel
>feels pretty cramp
>wow so much brushes (dunno how to use them though)

Well I've been using SAI just recently and felt pretty comfortable with it. Problem is it's going to expire pretty soon and I needed something free and open source. I'd probably feel comfortable with Krita once I get to use it in a 64-bit system.

[sasquatchii]

I use Photoshop and Illustrator CC. I went to school to study graphic design, and fortunately for me my company pays for my subscription to it, and I can have it both on my work and personal computer for free! It's what I've always used and I feel comfortable using the Adobe suite, plus, it's the standard for most creative agencies in America which is nice.

[RedVampyr]

SAI is fantastic- I've been tired lately, so I tested it instead by exporting one of my Opencanvas images and redoing the shading- because OC 5's watercolor tool is pretty much useless, I had to do flat cel shading, and it really had been bothering me, but doing it over in SAI with the watercolor tool was a major improvement to the entire piece. I can't wait to get the time to sit down and do a new piece from scratch with it and see what SAI can really do. The interface is amazing.

Ew, that Krita interface looks horrible by comparison. I would not be able to deal with the lag, especially for things like speedpainting and lineart on hair.

I also was introduced to Manga Studio though version 4, and while it was pretty amazing for learning how to do art on the computer at the time, I don't think it could really provide me with what I need to do anime cg stuff now. Version 5 does look like a vast improvement. It's cheaper (I have Amazon Prime), so I'll keep it in mind if I want to buy new software soon.

[MaiMai]

@RedVampyr: If you really want to play around with the brushes more, visit this Tumblr: http://ptsbrushes.tumblr.com/

Since so many people use SAI, it means there's a lot of sharing of resources. I love this Tumblr since there's so many brush settings I can try out to see which I would like to keep.

I'm reinstalling Manga Studio 5 right now. I would like to learn how to use it more just in case I don't have Photoshop in the future.

[LateWhiteRabbit]

I'm reinstalling Manga Studio 5 right now. I would like to learn how to use it more just in case I don't have Photoshop in the future.

That's why I investigated Manga Studio 5 in first place. Adobe had just gone to subscription, which is cheaper for new users, but if you plan on using the software for years, is vastly more expensive than purchasing a license the old way. And all the new updates are mainly for photographers, and you rarely see any for illustrators anymore.

I noticed a lot of professional artists and comic creators I really trust and respect use Manga Studio, so I figured if anything was going to replace Photoshop for me, that would be it. Like I said, I fell in love with it quite a bit, but at the moment Photoshop is my wife and Manga Studio 5 is the exciting mistress I keep slipping out with.

[MaiMai]

I'm reinstalling Manga Studio 5 right now. I would like to learn how to use it more just in case I don't have Photoshop in the future.

That's why I investigated Manga Studio 5 in first place. Adobe had just gone to subscription, which is cheaper for new users, but if you plan on using the software for years, is vastly more expensive than purchasing a license the old way. And all the new updates are mainly for photographers, and you rarely see any for illustrators anymore.

I noticed a lot of professional artists and comic creators I really trust and respect use Manga Studio, so I figured if anything was going to replace Photoshop for me, that would be it. Like I said, I fell in love with it quite a bit, but at the moment Photoshop is my wife and Manga Studio 5 is the exciting mistress I keep slipping out with.

I put up two comparison images in the Art Dump thread of a piece I worked on completely in Manga Studio and one painted over in SAI. I don't have quite the feel for it right now and I probably have to adjust the settings so it can be as sensitive as the latter. I'm not completely sold on the coloring tools yet.

[LateWhiteRabbit]

I put up two comparison images in the Art Dump thread of a piece I worked on completely in Manga Studio and one painted over in SAI. I don't have quite the feel for it right now and I probably have to adjust the settings so it can be as sensitive as the latter. I'm not completely sold on the coloring tools yet.

Yeah, that's been the one sticking point keeping me from total conversion too.

But the fluidity, control, and marks I get when drawing in Manga Studio 5 just destroy Photoshop's results in the same area. Photoshop always seems to fight me a little bit, but I think I'd forgotten how much it fights me until I started drawing in Manga Studio 5. Wait - you mean I don't have to hit Ctrl-Z all the time? Amazing. And the ruler and perspective tools in Manga Studio 5 just win everything.

My new workflow has very much been -> Initial Block-out in Manga Studio -> Sketch -> Final Sketch -> Ink in Manga Studio (depends on what I'm doing) -> Import .PSD file (because Manga Studio saves out PSD files!! ) into Photoshop to color -> Import mostly finished file back into Manga Studio to smooth or tweak colors using oil or watercolor tools -> Import file back into Photoshop for final tweaks, adjustments, etc.

I think the results you got in SAI for that picture are very reproducible in Manga Studio 5; I've done similiar blending like you have in the sleeves and hair. I'm just still not 100% comfortable with coloring from scratch in Manga Studio, but it's probably more my 15 years of Photoshop familiarity fighting against me rather than a fault on Manga Studio's part.

[buttdumpling]

I'm slowly learning to color in SAI, I used to switch between SAI and Photoshop CS5 for coloring.
SAI is a godsend though, I'm sure it's probably a faux pas but vectors are pretty much the best thing EVER.
And if you do use vectors, there's literally a tool just for changing the color of your lines. So that's pretty cool.
For me, vectors are pretty much the difference between me actually finishing a drawing or not.
And there are definitely lots of awesome tutorials for SAI :3