7 Ways Clip Studio Paint is for Manga Artists.

Did you know that Clip Studio Paint was originally called Manga Studio 5? There a reason for this; the program was made with manga artist in mind first. This is why Clip Studio Paint has so many features that are designed for manga artists. From the story tab to the layer button this program is designed with the manga artist in mind. It has many features that can be done in any program, but Clip Studio Paint does it all done in one to two clicks. This article will show that the top 10 tools Clip Studio Paint has to offer for an artist.

The Story Tab

1. The Story Tab

The story tab is a tab within Clip Studio Paint that lets the user control their story pages. This tab lets you access multiple setting to help with the comic process. The story tab also lets the user see all the pages the creator made in one single click. A standard comic chapter is about 20 pages; opening and closing 20 pages is an awfully slow process. So Clip Studio Paint has a story tab that lets the user see all the pages in one click. The tab also let the user control all the pages in the tab. For example, if you want to change the page size the user just needs to click the Change basic page settings button. From there you can change every page size from one dialogue box. Of course, opening the pages is awesome but see the page is just as important. Flow is important for every story, so making sure something exciting happens on a page flip is important. With the story tab, you see every page in one tab.

Of course, seeing is great, but moving, adding, and deleting pages is just as important. With the story tab, you can do all of this and more. You can add multiple pages with one click, delete those pages in one click, import and export images, and combine pages. After all of the pages are done you can batch export them with one click, and Clip Studio Paint does the rest. The story tab is also where the text editor feature is, which is the next feature.

The Text Editor

2. The Text Editor

Comics are not just pictures they have text too and nothing is more important than spelling. Spelling and grammar can make or break your comic so being able to edit your dialogue is super important. Clip Studio Paint text editor lets the user do just that with 2 simple clicks. From the story tab lick the editor tab and boom, you can edit your text with ease. You could copy and paste the whole script from this tab if you wanted to. Go to a certain page editing the text, and add text with ease. The tool also has a search and replace function. If you decide one day to change your characters name, with this tab you can do it once, and not have to open hundreds of pages. Editing text is great but what about editing your comic page, say no more because page settings are the next feature well talk about.

The Page Setting / Templates

3. The Page Setting / Templates

When starting this feature was a lifesaver as a beginning artist. Clip Studio Paint has professional page settings and template for the beginner artist. The page settings are for every type of manga / comic page size. A4, A5, A6, B4, B5, B6, Postcard, and Custom. These are the standard for comic excluding the custom. The DPI is set at 300 but can be changed of course, and the mangaka, author, info can be inserted from the same dialogue box. Plus with this tab if the info changes, like if you change the title, this tab changes all page info.

That’s just the tip of the iceberg. Let's say you know you're going to do a 4-panel comic, Clip Studio Paint gots you covered. After making the panels you can make that page a template, that you can call at any time. It also has some standard preset manga pages. The page they give are petty basic, but it better than nothing. With the new asset feature of Clip Studio Paint, you can download thousand of templates so your not limited to the few they give you. So far I only talked about setting up a manga page, so let's talk about the drawing process.

The Perspective Tools

4. The Perspective Tools

Perspective; love or hate it you have to do it if you’re a comic artist. Especially if you're doing a modern comic book, with a lot of buildings. Well, Clip Studio Paint gots you covered with its perspective tool. The tool is easy to use and apply to your art. It can do the major 3 perspectives, first, second, and third. You just have to move the perspective lines to follow your sketch and you're done. From there you can hand draw the object or use the rectangle tools. With this tool, you don’t have to question if the perspective is right, cause it does it for you. This tool also lets you unclip it to the perspective line so you can draw organic object without making a new layer, or lose the perspective grid. This tool helps with the backgrounds for your panels, but you haven’t made the panels yet. Don’t work clip studio paint is here to help!

The Frame Tool

5. The Frame Tool

The frame tool is a weird but awesome tool. Being able to customize your manga panel is a need for any comic artist. This tool has two ways to make these panels. One is to break each panel into its own folder. The other way is to make the panels in its own mask layer within one folder. Basically one has more folder, while the other doesn’t Both ways are fine, it depends on the artists in question. This tool is simple and easy to use. That and the fact that any panel style can be achieved with it, make it a necessity for a manga artist. Since we're talking about layer, let talk about the layer color function is clip studio paint.

The Layer Color Button

6. The Layer Color Button

Sketch first then Lineart that’s the process of make any drawing. You could easier the sketch, or just change the color. To do this in photoshop you would have to make a new layer, clip it to the sketch, then fill the layer with whatever color you want. With Clip Studio Paint that whole process is one click with the layer color button. On top of that, you can change the color with ease too. This feature is super useful for printing and inking. You could sketch digitally then ink traditionally. This feature is also used to add effect on the lineart, but again it does matter how you use it.

The Saturated Line Tool

7. The Saturated Line Tool

Impact! Manga artist uses it to pull the reading in. one way of doing this is with speed lines. The Saturated Line tool in Clip Studio Paint helps for every situation. Thick, thin, spread, close, or whatever style it can do. This tool is professional looking and quick to both use and customizable.

They're a bunch of other tools clip studio paint has for the manga artist. Honorable mention is the fact that clip studio can export is other file languages, like photoshop, sai, and others. The Bullo tool, the gradient tool, and so on. However, these main seven tools were the selling points for most people who get the program. Clip studio paint is still updating to make its program one of the greats. While writing this post it put out a much-needed update for its text functionality. This program will live on for a while because it caters to its audience, and these tools are just a small example of them listening.