MangaStudio out

[telophase]

You guys might want to know that the program I've been using to do Project Blue Rose is now officially out in the States. MangaStudio, in 3.0. (I've been in the beta-testing program and have 2.0) There's two versions: the Debut which is basic and much cheaper, and EX, which is Pro and more expensive, unfortunately, I'm going to have to get that because I've gotten way too used to the features in it from the beta-test version of 2.0 that I've got.

Luckily, the press release notes that it will be available with an educational discount, and I note that Academic Superstore, my favorite academic-pricing online merchant, is on their list, so I shall be haunting that website until it shows up there. :D

Comments

[the-z.livejournal.com]

*reaaaaach* Damn my birthday for falling so close to con season!

[telophase.livejournal.com]

I'm glad that Academic Superstore is on their approved-resellers list, because that gives me a goooood reason to wait for it instead of dropping money I really don't have at the moment. *mentally earmarks A-Kon money for it*

[the-z.livejournal.com]

That's got to be such a great deal! I miss those prices.

[frostedelves.livejournal.com]

Ooh, neat. Your link to Academic Superstore needs a dash, though. www.academic-superstore.com

Pretty exciting! Wish they had a trial version available.

[telophase.livejournal.com]

Oops. Actually, it didn't need a dash, it needed a ".com" at the end of the link, which i'd forgotten to add. :D Fixed now.

[frostedelves.livejournal.com]

I should look to see more than that the page loaded before correcting-- what's actually on it might be relevant, too. I am a dork. Thanks. :)

[tammylee.livejournal.com]

UHNNNNNnnnnnnnnnnn
but the price!!!
*winnnnnnce*

I picked up comicworks a few years ago but I still prefer to use Photoshop with my PowerTone plugin. This mangastudio looks very robust tho! *waffles*

[telophase.livejournal.com]

It's pretty cool. :) If it weren't COMPLETELY UNETHICAL, of course, I'd suggest finding a student or school staff member you know and get them to get it for you with academic pricing. :D

[puppleball.livejournal.com]

Academic Superstore rocks. I have a huge Adobe order in with them I would not have been able to afford otherwise (Creative Suite CS Artist Addition-PS, Ill, In-Design, Acrobat, ect. bundled w/ Freehand; and Production Suite-Premier, After Affects, etc.). Only thing was they weren't clear on the fact that Adobe and a few others require a picture ID until after I had sent in a non photo id. Luckily, they accept a weblink to a faculty webpage, so I sent that.

[prettyism.livejournal.com]

I'll be a student in the summer, so i'll wait. But since I draw,ink and shade by hand is it worth for the lettering and bg tones? :like do they have a lot of flower tones and those foo-foo shoujo effects I overuse? XD

[telophase.livejournal.com]

The version I'm using is 2.0 and the version they're selling is 3.0, so I'm not sure if there's been improvements, but the lettering in 2.0 pretty much sucks rocks. I'm lettering in it isntead of Photoshop because I'm lettering before I tone, and I need to maintain the layers, which I can't do if I export to Photoshop. The toning is pretty good, though, and it's got a lot of tones in it, plus you can import pictures and it'll change them into tones - don't exect AMAZING GREAT results with that because you need to work out how to prepare a photo so it turns into tones nicely - and you cna create and add your own digital tones to a tone library (er, in the EX version, not the Debut I think). That's where it outshines ComicWorks - you can't import tones into CW.

But if you're not doing anything with tones other than laying them into the background, I wouldn't bother because you cna do that just as well with Photoshop. It's got a decent amount of tone sin it and might be worth the $30 education for the Debut version as a simple tone library, you just export its tones and use them in Photoshop.