Hello and welcome to the Manga Studio EX 5 Cookbook! This book is set up to give you "recipes" to complete tasks in Manga Studio EX 5—from creating pages, to using vector layers, to exporting your finished project. I hope that this book will become an invaluable resource in your library and that you'll look at it often when you can't remember the steps to do something in this amazing art software. I also hope that you'll use the techniques and tips presented in these pages to inspire you to create your own techniques and to streamline your workflow.
You may have purchased this book even though you don't have Manga Studio EX 5. Perhaps you have Manga Studio 5 and are looking to see if you should upgrade to the EX version? Thankfully, most of this book will apply to the Manga Studio 5 version of the software, but there are several exciting and time-saving features that are only available in the EX version.
If you have purchased my first book, Mastering Manga Studio 5, Packt Publishing, these two books work very well together!
Chapter 1, Creating and Manipulating Pages and Page Templates, covers everything about making new pages (files) in Manga Studio EX 5. We will learn how to make custom paper sizes, make files with multiple pages (EX only), and make page and cover templates to save time in our drawing.
Chapter 2, Customizing Brushes, teaches us all about making new brushes in Manga Studio EX 5. This includes special effect brushes, such as broken glass, clothing ruffles, and cracked rubble!
Chapter 3, Getting a Handle on Vectors, covers some of the vector tools in Manga Studio EX 5. We'll learn how to make vector layers, make marks with the brush and line tools, and edit those shapes by using the control points.
Chapter 4, Using the Layer Modes, have you ever wondered what the layer modes such as Multiply, Screen, and Darken do? This chapter will teach you all about these methods of combining layers.
Chapter 5, Making Selections and Layer Masks, includes the newest updates of Manga Studio EX 5 have included some new ways of making selections. Learn how to make layer masks, use the selection pen, and more in this chapter.
Chapter 6, Using New Rulers and Line Tools, covers the newer updates of Manga Studio EX 5, new rulers and new line tools. We'll learn how to use the Symmetry ruler, saturated lines, scattered lines, the Gloom tool, and more in this chapter.
Chapter 7, Adding and Creating Tones and Materials, shows that Manga Studio EX 5 comes with a large library of screentones and other materials, but we can also add our own! Learn how to apply existing materials to a drawing, then learn how to make your own screentones, fabric patterns, and more.
Chapter 8, Playing with Color Palettes, shows that there are many ways to store and choose colors for our drawing in Manga Studio EX 5. This chapter will teach us how to import an existing palette from another program, save color sets, create harmonious color schemes, and use the Color History palette.
Chapter 9, Creating Special Effects, covers color holds, shiny leather, lightning, and laser blasts! This chapter can get you started on some special effects to make your illustrations and comics pop!
Chapter 10, Using 3D Objects, reveals that Manga Studio EX 5 comes with many 3D elements that can be used in your work. Learn how to add 3D models to the page, move the objects and the 3D camera, customize models, and save custom 3D information as materials.
Chapter 11, Exporting the Finished Product, now that we have some comics made, it's time to take them and show them to the world- via print or the Web. This chapter will teach us about exporting pages, including how to reduce file size or change image dimensions without changing our original file.
To use this book, you will need Manga Studio 5. Either the EX or the regular version will work. If you do not have EX 5 then some of the recipes in the first chapter and one recipe in the final chapter will not be accessible to you: specifically the recipes about making or exporting multiple page files.
You will also find it easiest to use this book with a drawing tablet of some sort. There are many brands and styles, from ones that replace your mouse with a pen and board that you draw on, to monitors that display your work and allow you to make changes on-screen, just like drawing with pencil and paper. The first type, without a display in it, is the cheapest type and is usually best for a beginner to digital art. The most popular brand of tablets is Wacom, but there are many others out there.
This book is for intermediate users who already know a little bit about graphics software. Maybe you've used Adobe Photoshop for a while and are trying to make the switch to Manga Studio 5 EX? If you already know what layers are and can find the pencil, pen, and other tools, then you should not have any problems following along with the recipes in this book.
In this book, you will find several headings that appear frequently (Getting ready, How to do it…, How it works…, There's more…, and See also).
To give clear instructions on how to complete a recipe, we use these sections as follows:
This section tells you what to expect in the recipe, and describes how to set up any software or any preliminary settings required for the recipe.
This section usually consists of a detailed explanation of what happened in the previous section.
This section consists of additional information about the recipe in order to make the reader more knowledgeable about the recipe.
In this book, you will find a number of text styles that distinguish between different kinds of information. Here are some examples of these styles and an explanation of their meaning.
New terms and important words are shown in bold. Words that you see on the screen, for example, in menus or dialog boxes, appear in the text like this: "In the Preferences window, click on the Edit text option on the left-hand-side menu."
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