Manga Software: Best Software to Read and Draw Manga (Chapter 2)

Welcome to part two of my hub series devoted to Manga Software. In Chapter 1, I have already talked about the best Software to read manga. Now, all attention focus on the artists, as I will approach the best software to draw manga! Now let me start with a note: I'm not a manga artist! Actually, my ability to draw is close to zero. So this is not a manga drawer expert opinion. However, I assure you it's an heavily researched review of the top programs to draw manga.

Software to Draw Manga

Why to use software programs to draw manga, you might ask? Can't I achieve the same results with a paper and pencil? Well, yes you can, but you'll take much more time and I'll guarantee you the final product won't be so neat.

Manga creation software is all about versatility. It provides you with hundreds of options and functions that can improve dramatically the look of your manga sketches and drawings. Using manga drawing programs (well, at least the good ones!) is one of the important steps that an artist has to do in the transition from amateurism to being a manga professional.

There are essentially two ways of working with a manga creation program:

1) Either you do most of the drawings by hand, scanning and uploading then the panels to do the final edits, adding tone,coloring, special effects, etc.

2) Or, the more recommended way, creating the mangas from scratch in the program, with the help of quality graphic pen tablets, having with that acess in full to all of the software tools, that will grant your creation exactly the look and feel that you want (a pro look!)

With proper use, a manga software can not only make your mangas look better, it will speed up the process of creating them while setting the perfect platform for an easy print and publish of your work.

So, having said that, let's now look at the goods, shall we? Have in mind, that you won't a find a free option here.These programs are good and the companies invest a lot in them. So they will always have a price tag, sometimes a pretty high one. Of course, some are bigger than others, so even if you are a complete manga amateur, you'll find the perfect solution for you, that won't cost you that much.

Manga Studio EX is the absolute and unquestionable winner when we talk about the best software to create and draw manga. This program, developed by MySmithMicro company, is THE professional solution for creating comics in general and mangas in particular.

Manga Studio EX has it all:

• Provides you with a wide variety of familiar tools such as pens, pencil, brushes and due to vectorial layering and sensorial mapping you'll actualy feel the smooth sensation of drawing as you use your pen tablet;
• Choose from hundreds of built-in templates, thousands of tones and millions of colors, to give every detail of your manga a unique touch;
• Has several rulers designed specifically for comics creation that make much easier the job of adding some special effects like speed and focus lines, so important in expressing motion or moods of the manga characters;
• On-the-fly frame creation, one of the things that makes this software unique and great to draw manga. With it you get the ability to section off the panels of your page into individual frames - each frame having it's own mini-drawing area, with it's own rulers, layers and so forth. Anything drawn outside of this frame is clipped of, so you can be messy as you want and never fear for the rest of your artwork ;)
• Story Editor, that allows you to edit all the text for your story and to distribute it across the pages of your manga creation;
• Over one hundred different dialog balloon styles, easily customizable to fit even the weirdest frames;
• An advanced filter set, that allows for all kind of special effects play. Includes several filters aimed at black-and.white drawings;
• Impressive 2D and 3D image import and rendering tools, that coupled with the vector toolkit facilitates greatly the introduction of backgrounds and 3D objects in a 2D manga. Comes as well with a library of hundreds of images already ready to be transformed into tone and line drawing;
• Covers all output formats imaginable; your finished artwork can not only be printed from your desktop, you can send it into digital format to professional printers, export into a format like jpeg or pdf so you can post in a blog or social networking site or even turn it into a layered photoshop file;
• Oh, almost forgot. With Manga Studio Ex technology, you can resize your drawings all the times you want and you'll never get quality loss ^_^

Of course, this software supports huge working resolutions, and suprisingly it's not very demanding on your computer (even a Tablet PC with 1Gb of Ram is more than enough to support this aplication).

Bottom line, this is THE program you need to buy if you're either a professional cartoon/manga artist or you are seriously intending to follow that road. It's an expensive software, but trust me, this one is worth every penny!

Yep, I'm going to talk of Manga Studio again! Only this time, i'ts Manga Studio Debut version I'm recommending. It's way cheaper than it's big brother EX and has fewer options, but it still provides all the tools a manga enthusiast will need to create and publish a great comic, with all the quality associated to the Manga Studio trademark!

Being very easy to use by people that already worked with layering programs like adobe photoshop, even the newbies can get a grip of it fast, with help from the beginner's assistant that is provided within.

All the basic options to draw manga are present in this package, so Layering, Palettes and Drawing tools are very similar to the full version.

It's in the extra stuff that Debut lacks a bit. You can't work with vectors and there are several cool editing tools (albeit non-essencial) not available in Debut. Another missing feature is the 2D and 3D rendering. Debut also has fewer templates, tones and rulers than EX, but still more than enough for you to create great works!

All in all, if you already have a nice drawing ability as an amateur or you're even an independent manga artist starting out and don't want to spend a lot of cash, Manga Studio Debut more than fits the bill.

Actually, if you do your counts right, you'll see that Debut is probably a money saver. Instead of emptying your wallet with expensive art materials, you can buy this software that does it all for you, for less than 40 dollars! Soon you'll have that web comic or small press title finished and ready to entertain thousand of readers!

If you are a complete new person to the art of drawing manga, but are fascinated by it and want to give it a go, then Tokyopop Manga Creator might be the best program for you!

This is clearly the most easy to use software of the lot. I mean, it's so simple even you mum or dad that only like to watch the History Channel, could create a manga comic in no time!

Tokyopop's has a clean and intuitive interface, where you'll find on the left a panel with all the basic options (like backgrounds, word bubbles, links to outside media...) and on the right the more detailed controls (font, image transformation, balloon position, etc.)

This program comes with a wide variety of templates that you can choose when you create a page. After that, the rest of your job consist of basically drag-and-drop! Yes, it's that simple!

Simplicity is, at the same time, the greatest strength and weakness of Tokyopop Manga Creator. It gives the user an easy experience... but a very limited one.

You virtually have no creative control of your work. There isn't any way for you to draw directly on the pages. You have to rely on the program's templates [that are a LOT, don't get me wrong, but are non-tweakable so you can't change little things like the size and placement of the panels) and on importing all the artwork from outside sources (or from the extensive image library of Tokyopop!).

Manga Creator isn't also an inking or coloring software. So if you want to put images of your own you have to do all the artwork on paper and then scan it, and rely on another piece of software (or your hands! ^_^') to work the finer details.

Another awkward thing is the caption advertising to the product that shows up in the bottom right of all the pages once published.

Now, don't get me wrong. Out of all the three programs I described, this would be the one I would use (because I lack complete drawing ability, remember? O_o but I would still love to create my own manga!) This one is not for the artists. It's for the enthusiasts! It's quite addictive in it's own way, as it allows you to create comics on-the fly and let your imagination go wild!

Also, it features some neat options that you won't see in Manga Studio. One of them is the possibility to add audio and video options in your web comic... so you can have a video frame in your manga, mixed with the regular animation - how cool is that! You can also create a flipping-book for an added efect when you publish your manga in your website.

The price of this software is, of course, another of it's best qualities! You can find it in Ebay for less than 10 dollars! Also, you can access for free the MashOn site, that has a built-in comic creator that was based on this Tokyopop Manga Creator!

So, you really have no excuses to try this one! ;)