Part IV: Advanced Tips and Tricks

You can adjust the position of the vanishing point by clicking the focal

point (designated by the blue X in the middle) and dragging it to the new

position.

To remove a vanishing point, select the one you want to delete and click

the Trash button, located at the top of the dialog box.

7. In the Degrees/Line text box, enter a value between 0.05 and 30 to

change the number of perspective lines generated.

The value you enter is the angle at which a line is generated, so a

smaller number results in more lines, and vice versa.

8. Select the Apply to All the Vanishing Points check box before you

adjust the value if you’d like the Degrees/Line value reflected in all

the vanishing points created.

If you want the value to affect only the current vanishing point, deselect

the check box.

9. In the Width text box, enter a value between 0.1 mm and 1.0 mm to

adjust the line thickness of all the perspective lines.

10. If you aren’t happy with how things are looking and just want to start

fresh, you can click the Delete All button, and all the vanishing points

(and their respective lines) are removed from the page.

11. Select the Clear Layer check box if you want to remove any other art

from the image layer.

This option is useful if you happened to draw on the layer before you

started the filter, for example.

12. Click OK when you’re done.

To make things easier to read while working, you can adjust the color of the

perspective lines. Simply open the Layer Properties dialog box by pressing F3

on your keyboard and change the Display Color from Grayscale to Color.

Click the Color box to change the value to a different color.

If you’re working in two- or three-point perspective, try creating each vanish￾ing point on a separate layer. That way, you can make each set of perspective

lines a different layer. When you’re working with many different perspective

lines, this can help reduce confusion when staring at a jumble of lines.

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Chapter 15

Manga Studio EX Only!

In This Chapter

Discovering additional tool palettes

Using the Gradation tool

Using the various effects filters on your page

Working with the focus line, parallel line, and perspective line rulers

Explaining some of the other exclusive Manga Studio EX tools and features.

Here’s where spending the extra money for Manga Studio EX pays off.

Fundamentally, there aren’t any major differences between Manga

Studio Debut and Manga Studio EX. Both versions do an excellent job with

exactly what they’re intended to do — help you digitally produce the finest

work you can. In fact, if you compared a page created in Debut and a page

created in EX, you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference (unless the EX user

decided to use a lot of funky effects on the page).

I think that the real difference between the two versions boils down to

convenience. Both versions can perform the same tasks — but Manga Studio

EX can perform some of them easier and faster. The advantages that EX has

over its little brother Debut ranges from setting the color density of all the

drawing tools at once to drawing correctly in perspective simply by drawing

on the screen. EX also has a few functions and abilities that Debut simply can’t

do, such as applying special effects. This chapter is all about the advantages

you have with Manga Studio EX.

Understanding and Taking Advantage

of the Manga Studio EX Palettes

The basic palette that users of Manga Studio Debut and EX have has been

covered throughout the course of this book. However, I’m sure you EX users

have noticed an additional group of palettes that I haven’t touched on . . . yet.

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To avoid confusion for the Debut users, I set aside these exclusive palettes

to this chapter, where I would be able to discuss them in further depth.

Considering the cool features you now have at your disposal, you’ll be glad

I saved these palettes for last.

The Gray palette

If you want to lighten the color of your line work when penciling, you’d nor￾mally open the Tool Options palette and adjust its opacity. However, if you

notice, that setting is good for only the particular pencil you’re working with;

if you want all your pencils to have the same opacity level, you need to go

through each pencil type and set its corresponding opacity. Of course, if you

change your mind and want a darker color, you have to go though each type

again and . . . I think you get the point.

What the Gray palette (shown in Figure 15-1) does is save you time. Instead

of going through each pencil type, you simply adjust the gray level in the

palette, and all your pencil tools now draw in that same shade of gray. Even

more, all of your drawing tools use the same gray level. If you need to change

colors on-the-fly, simply adjust the level in the Gray palette again and keep

working with any of the drawing tools you want.

While I’ve established in this book that you aren’t really working with colors

other than black and white, I use “colors” to refer to the drawing opacity

level. It rolls off the tongue better than “gray levels”

To use the Gray palette, follow these steps:

1. Either click the Gray palette button, located on the main toolbar or

press F9 on your keyboard.

2. Choose whether you want to adjust the color of the foreground or

background colors by clicking their respective color boxes.

3. Use the slider to adjust the color to the value you want. Or you can

enter a value between 0 % and 100 % in its corresponding text box.

4. If you’d like to save the color to use later, click the Register Color

button and it’s saved in the color repository.

5. When you want to reuse a color you’ve saved, click its color box in

the repository and you’re ready to go.

If you don’t want to save your own colors, you can use one of the preinstalled

gray sets instead. Click the Temporal Gray Set button (located below the

color slider) and you can then select the set you’d like to use from the drop￾down list.

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