Manga Studio 5: Workspace and Tools
Manga Studio 5 is a fantastic art program and with a high level of customization. In fact for most folks that start using it all those choices can be intimidating! But with a little practice, poking around, and pressing buttons it's easy enough to learn the tools.
Background Preference
This is the first thing I change upon installation. By default Manga Studio's background is a light gray. This messes with my eyes when I work and I find darker tones to be more soothing.
To change the color of you Manga Studio 5, simply go to File>Preferences>Interface and in the color section you can choose "Dark Color" or "Light Color" and the Density of the color. |
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Layout/Workspace
Manga Studio's workspace has a lot of windows that your tools are in and one of the coolest features about the program is that you can organize them! The windows "dock" (aka clip or stick to) certain areas on your screen if you drag and drop them. This is indicated by a red bar that shows up showing you where the toolbar you are moving is going to dock itself.
I like to think of your Workspace as your desk. Many people have real life workspaces where you like to draw, write, etc. And most people don't organize them the same way! My layout of my Manga studio works best for me but you might find (if you move your tools around a bit) something that works out best for you. When you have a layout that suits you you can save it as a preset! To do this go to Window>Workspace>Register Workspace. This will allow you to name it. If you keep the Default one intact you can switch between them. This is also fantastic if you need different Workspaces for different kinds of work! |
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Here's a few examples of different Manga Studio Layouts!
So Many Windows!
Okay so you know how to move your tools around but what do all of these things actually do? This is going to be a list of your windowed tools and what they do/show/are used for!
Command Bar: The command bar is a pretty basic toolbar, you've seen similar ones in other programs you've used I'm sure! The icons mostly correspond to some file or image functions you'll use regularly in Manga Studio. They are, from left to right: Make New Canvas, Open a Saved Canvas, Save the Current Canvas, Export in Single Layer (.jpeg), Export in Single Layer (.png), Save as .psd (Photoshop file), Undo, Redo, Clear Current Layer, Clear Outside of Selection, Fill Layer with Color, Scale Up/Scale Down/Rotate, Deselect, Invert Selection, Show/Hide Selection Boarder, Snap to Ruler, Snap to Special Ruler, Snap to Grid
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Tool: Where all you basic tools are. This is where you select a tool to use. Included tools are: Pencil, Pen, Brush, Airbrush, Eyedropper, Move Layer, Marquee (Lasso or Selection Tool), Blend, Eraser, Decoration, Zoom, Move, Magic Wand, Text, Fill, Gradient, Select, Correct Line, Figure
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Sub Tool: This and Tool Property are where all your actual brushes and details for each tool are at. I consider them subsets of the actual Tool Menu which is why mine are all lined up in one place. Sub Tool generally contains your different brush heads or, for tools like the Marquee, things like the shape of the selection. Sub Tool generally is "What would you like this tool to do visually?" For the Marquee, do you want it to select a circle? Do you want it to select a Square? For the Blend tool do you want to do a Finger Tip Blur? Do you want a Watercolor blur? etc.
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Tool Property: This is more about "How do you want the tool to function?". This is where you can set your Stabilizer for your pens, it's where you can choose brush size and opacity, anti-aliasing, etc. It's for additional tweaks to how you want the tool to function. For the gradient tool, for instance, this is where you can pick the kind of gradient you want: linear, circular, or ellipse. It's always good to look at this and see what options you have in it when you're working!
Brush Size: This one is pretty self explanatory. Brush size is a set of standard brush sizes that you can choose from. How big do you need your brush tip?
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Tool Settings: This window can't be docked like the other ones can but it can be accessed from the Window drop down at the top and is also very important. It's exceptionally important when you're making your own brushes and want to tweak how they work. It allows for more advanced brush changes like changing the tip shape, the way the paint mixes, etc. For your standard starting out, you probably won't use this too much but it's good to know it exists and what it does.
Color Wheel: Also pretty self explanatory. This is a circular wheel of color with a square inside. The outside ring allows you to choose color while the inside square allows you to choose anywhere in a range of saturations and tones.
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Color Slider: Similar to the color wheel only this one allows you to choose between RGB, HSV, and CMYK color sliders.
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Color Set: This is a color palette, a series of predefined colors. You can have multiple ones and custom ones!
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Intermediate Color: This is exceptionally cool when playing with colors. You can choose 4 colors, one for each corner of the grid and get a gradient square of mixtures of those colors to pick from.
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Approximate Color: This gives you another grid of color and lets you make changes. You select a similar colors by changing things like hue, saturation, etc.
Layer: Your layer panel shows your layers.
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Search Layer: This allows you to sort your layers by type such as Raster, Vector, Gradient, Text, etc.
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Layer Properties: Allows you to change layer settings like if it's color or grayscale, the effects, etc.
Navigator: A viewing window where you can see a smaller version of your image. It also allows you to zoom, rotate, and flip the canvas view as you work.
Sub View: A really nifty feature. This lets you open up another image to use as reference. It has a built in color picker so you can select colors from the image as you work.
History: Shows a history of what you have done so far on the canvas such as brush strokes, clearing the screen, etc.
Auto Action: This is also a really cool feature. It lets you record a series of actions for the program to do on it's own like setting up layers etc. Can be a very useful shortcut.
Memory Usage: Very straight forward. This shows you how much memory your program is using.
Material: This is where all of your Manga Studio Materials are stored. Think of this like a desk drawer full of premade items. There's repeating backgrounds, tones, pictures, 3D objects and your pen tips. You can make custom make patterns and such to put in here as well which is useful for making brushes or even just storing your signature!