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[rtilrtil]

Elf Lilly has a gift for you…but you can only open it on Twitter because the grinch runs Tumblr.

twitter | insta | patreon

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Setting up Clip Studio Paint / Manga Studio 5

[biblyoteka]

I’ve been using Clip Studio Paint (aka Manga Studio 5) for the last 2 years and I really cannot recommend it enough. It has the smoothness and blending of SAI, a really good brush system and some of Photoshop’s capabilities without the heaviness of the software. I mean, what more could you want? 

Unfortunately I feel like the UI deters some people from using it (including my friends…). I can see why and I have to admit the default layout looks a little overwhelming in the beginning. On the bright side, CSP is incredibly flexible with its settings and there are many ways to adapt it to suit what you’re accustomed to. In my case, I wanted something more similar to SAI to make the software transition smoother (old habits die hard I guess).

* There’s a note at the end of this post with a download link to my layout and hotkey settings, plus instructions on how to enable it.

I hope this helps people who feel somewhat lost when they open the program for the first time ><

First things first: Close everything you don’t want and drag panels around. Re-arrange everything however you want, even down to tool order. Actually, most of this post may come off as common sense, but I think it still helps to have a rough idea of what exactly you can do with CSP if you find yourself just not getting into it at all.

This is the default:

My current layout:

After that, there are four areas of settings you need to check on, under File:

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Preferences

From the Preferences you can edit a lot of options regarding to how the software functions. From a UI and general ease-of-use standpoint, these are the key points you might want to look at:
► Interface tab: You can change the UI to have a light or dark colour using a slider, from a really light gray to really dark gray (almost black, similar to Photoshop CS6 default)

► Cursor tab: You can change what the cursor looks like when selecting certain tools.
► Layer/Frame tab: You can change the naming convention for when you duplicate a layer, and you can also set layer folders to [Through] layer mode as a default, instead of [Normal] layer mode.
► Ruler/Unit tab: For changing the guide lines for when you set rulers, also setting the default units you want to use (px or mm)
► Canvas tab: Under ‘Scale’ and ‘Angle’ you can set the zoom and rotate levels the zoom and rotate buttons snap to.

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Shortcut Settings

This is pretty self-explanatory and if you’ve modified Photoshop hotkeys, the window might look familiar. If you use hotkeys heavily like me, I recommend you look through it thorougly since some hotkeys might be different from what you’re used to or don’t have a hotkey set to it at all. You can set hotkeys to anything on the main menu, various general options (like increasing/decreasing brush size and main>sub colour switching), specific tools (even custom brushes) and auto actions.
Settings I recommend checking, mostly because these are what I personally care about:

Main Menu:
Edit > Clear
Edit > Fill
Edit > Convert brightness to opacity (converts degrees of white to degrees of transparency, useful for things like lineart)
Edit > Transform
Layer > Duplicate layer
Layer > Merge with layer below / Combine selected layer (these two are different, and unlike in PS where Ctrl+E works for both, it is separate for CSP)
Layer > Combine copies of displayed layer (Merges all visible layers into a separate layer, aka PS’s monster shortcut of Ctrl+Alt+Shift+E)
Selection > Select All
Selection > Deselect
Selection > Invert selected area
View > Rotate > Flip Horizontal (mirroring)

Option:
Drawing color > Switch main color and sub color
Drawing color > Switch to transparent color
… Or any of the different combinations they have, depending on what you want. Unlike PS and SAI, CSP has a third colour option available, which is ‘transparent’, so you can ‘paint’ using transparency, which functions pretty much like the eraser without needing to change tools.

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Modifier Key Settings

This is a pretty important part to stop by because it affects how you use your tools. Basically, for each tool, you can set what happens when you hold Ctrl, Shift, Alt, Spacebar or use the mouse wheel. With Photoshop and SAI, you may be used to normally having the colour picker / eyedropper when you hold Alt, and moving the layer’s contents when you hold Ctrl. Some of CSP’s default values of these shortcut keys are different, and I recommend getting a feel for the tools you use and changing these settings as you go.

To change a brush to eyedropper while holding Alt:
► Select ‘Settings for each process of tool’, and under ‘Sub Tool’ select which specific tool you want.
► Under the ‘Alt’ dropdown, select 'Change tool temporarily’, then click the Settings button. Select 'Eyedropper’ and click OK. (You don’t have to go all the way down the list of settings, unless you want to refine it to a more specific function)

To change to move layer while holding Ctrl:
► Do the same except under 'Ctrl’, select ’ Change tool temporarily’ to 'Move layer’.

Other settings from the drop down:
► For Shift, you can go to 'Tool aux. operation’ on the dropdown, and check the 'Straight line’ box to make straight lines that connect clicks when you hold Shift.

There are more so please look at the list carefully if you find yourself needing something regarding those key holds.

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Command Bar Settings

The command bar is the strip at the top with all the icons, just above the canvas tab. Basically you can put a bunch of shortcuts there of anything in the main menu. It’s really up to you. For mine, I keep the View > Rotate > Flip Horizontal icon on there so I can tell if my canvas is mirrored (because sometimes I forget the canvas is flipped and only realise when I’ve saved and looked at the pic). I also put the icons of all the correction layers I use the most, and the Layer > Combine selected layers icon since my Ctrl+E is already taken up by Merge with layer below.

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Additional general notes on navigating and setting up CSP:

► I recommend checking out everything under the Window menu, you might find a really handy panel that isn’t normally open, or you can even disable the Command Bar if you want. I like to keep the Information tab somewhere on the side so I can see if I’ll start lagging any time soon because of big files (lol).

► The Sub View panel is also really useful that it works as a box to place reference images in. You can open an entire folder there and scroll through using the arrows. You can set it so that every time you hover over the panel, the eyedropper is automatically on (handy!)

► Brush settings are accessible through this little wrench here at the bottom right corner of the tool property panel.

► Speaking of brushes, you can select which options are visible in the tool property panel by enabling the eye button.

► Each panel has this menu button. You’ll find even more display options there such as enabling/disabling panel-specific icon bars, changing the size of brush tiles, etc.

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TL;DR:
Anyways, if you are too lazy to do this all yourself, you can just download my workspace file and open it yourself.
Everything I’ve written about here (shortcuts, modifier keys, etc.) I’ve set to suit habits I’ve formed from using PS and SAI over the years. If you are in the same situation then I hope this will come in handy as a base for your own settings!

Personal hotkey list that’s included in the file (that I can remember):
A = Brightness to opacity
D = Clear layer
F = Fill
Ctrl+J = Duplicate Layer
Ctrl+K = Flip layer/selection horizontally (as in the Transform command, and not mirror)
Ctrl+U = Hue/Saturation
Ctrl+L = Levels
Ctrl+Shift+I = Invert selection
Ctrl+I = Invert colours
Ctrl+E = Merge to layer below
Ctrl+Alt+Shift+E = Merge all visible layers to a separate layer
Ctrl+T = Transform
Z = Main > Sub colour switch
Shift+Z = Switch to transparent colour
X = Mirror canvas
1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,0 = Change brush opacity in 10% increments
End = Resets Rotate and Mirror

Things like Ctrl+Z / X / C /  V / A / D / W / O / S etc. remain the same as normal in other programs. Ctrl+Y is Redo.

Download link: SAI…ish

Instructions: Put the file in your Documents \ CELSYS_EN \ CLIPStudioPaintVer1_1_0 \ Workspace Folder. Then open CSP and go to Window > Workspace and select “SAI…ish”. Click OK to importing the settings. Hopefully that should work! (If nothing changes, you can try Workspace > Reset “SAI…ish” and click Yes)

* Make sure the file is named workspace_2.spws
* If that clashes with another workspace in your files, you can just change the 2 to any number

[dagossss]

For those who just got this new program

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mrockz asked:

how do you do the thing with the fur? the thing with the making it look like fur?

briskby answered:

That’s just making a series of curved pointy triangles and small disconnected strokes.

I guess the best way to go about it is to not make them the same size, keep it ununiform.

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[drawingden]

How to paint wing by fusionnuke

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[ponett]

as promised, here’s a look at my pixel art process! these are all the major steps i took to make the exterior of the greenridge public library. if you wanna use this for educational purposes i encourage you to open this up in photoshop or something and go frame by frame

(oh, also, the town in super lesbian animal rpg is called greenridge now)

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For anyone who wants a free pose-able human reference for drawing

[piraticoctopus]

The other day I came across this awesome program by accident (I don’t even remember what I was actually searching for, but on the several times I’ve looked for a program like this I’ve had no luck). It’s cool enough that I wanted to share it.

It’s called DesignDoll (website here) and it’s a program that lets you shape and pose a human figure pretty much however you want.

There’s a trial version with no expiration date that can be downloaded for free, as well as the “pro license” version priced at $79. I’ve only had the free version for two days so far, so I’m not an expert and I haven’t figured out all of the features yet, but I’ve got the basics down. The website’s tutorials are actually pretty helpful for the basics, as well. 

Here’s the page for download, which has a list of the features available in both versions.

There are three features the free version doesn’t have:

• Can’t save OBJ files for export
• Can’t download models and poses from Doll Atelier (a sharing site for users; note that the site is in Japanese, though)
• It can’t load saved files
  

The third one means that if you make a pose, save it, and close the program, you can’t load that pose/modified model later. You have to start with the default model. I found that out when I tried to load a file from the day before (this is why reading is important…). Whether saving your modifications (and downloading models and poses) is worth $80 is up to you. 

But, the default model is pretty nice and honestly if all you’re looking for is a basic pose reference it should work fairly well as it is. Here’s what it looks like:

There’s a pose tag that lets you drag each joint into place and rotate body parts. The torso and waist can be twisted separately, and it seems like everything pretty much follows the range of movement it would have on an actual human.

Even the entire shoulder area is actually movable along with the joint! See, like how the scapular area of the back raises with the arm:

The morphing tag is one of the coolest features, in my opinion. It lets you pick and choose from a library of pre-set forms for the head, chest, arms, legs, etc. It has some more realistic body shapes in addition to more anime-like ones. Don’t like the options there? Mix a few to get what you want! Each option has a slider that lets you blend as much or as little as you want into the design. 

So you, too, can create beautiful things like kawaii Muscle-chan!!

The scale tag lets you mess with the proportions and connection points of different joints. This feature combined with the morphing feature not only allows more body shape variations, but it also means that you can do things like make a more digitigrade model if you want. (The feet only have an ankle joint, but for regular human poses that’s all that you really need, so whatever.)

Or you can make a weird chubby alien-like thing with giant hands and balloon tiddies if that’s more your thing.

The ability to pose hands to the extent it allows is far more than I could have hoped for from a free program. Seriously, you can change the position of each finger joint individually, as well as how spread out the fingers are from each other. Each crease on the diagram below is a point of movement, and the circles are for spread between fingers. 

And to make it a bit more convenient, there’s a library of pre-set hand poses you can pick from as well, and then change the pose from that if you like. 

In both versions, you can also import OBJ files from other places for the model to hold, like if you wanted to have them hold a sword or something.

Basically, this program is awesome and free and you should totally check it out if you want a good program for creating pose references.

[thebookskeeper]

I just wanted to add a little more to this. If you have trouble figuring out how light sources work in your drawings this also allows you to choose where to have a light source.

That shaded ball on the left is your light source. You can see how moving the point changed the shadow cast.

Oh and all those other nifty looking things in that bottom bar there, yeah it’s what you think. You can change the model color to one of these presets or even customize your own palette.

Plus for all you lovely people who want something a little more simplified to use as a pose reference

You can turn your model into the classic wire frame.

[nick-nocturn]

Why reblog this? Because for more visual creators, this will be like the lumberjack discovering chainsaws. “Reblog to save lives” as the saying goes.

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[trikruwriter]

“This is your daily, friendly reminder to use commas instead of periods during the dialogue of your story,” she said with a smile.

[onewordtest]

“Unless you are following the dialogue with an action and not a dialogue tag.” He took a deep breath and sat back down after making the clarifying statement. 

[evildorito]

“However,” she added, shifting in her seat, “it’s appropriate to use a comma if there’s action in the middle of a sentence.”

[tenoko1]

“True.” She glanced at the others. “You can also end with a period if you include an action between two separate statements.”

[cj-amused]

Things I didn’t know

[prismatic-bell]

“And–” she waved a pen as though to underline her statement–“if you’re interrupting a sentence with an action, you need to type two hyphens to make an en-dash.”

[jawnwats]

You guys have no idea how many students in my advanced fiction workshop didn’t know any of this when writing their stories.

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[tahthetrickster]

Attention non-artists who commission artists: don’t fuckin do this???

[mauditcajun]

Actually had someone do this to me too. Was doing a art stream, it took me over 2 hours to do his inked commission, he got a refund cause ‘it took too long’ that he figured I wasn’t going to do it after I gave him the file.

Don’t do this. Do not.

[littlegreendorito]

I’ve had this happen to me with a $350 comic :/ I had already finished it, it was full color, 6 panels and had a full bg in every panel. I was lucky in that I didn’t spend him money yet, but it left me without funds. I’ve also had the above happen to me as well.

Don’t do this shit to artists. We’re people too. Drawing for you is more than a hobby. It’s a job.

[aroyalmoon]

Use Paypal Invoices. 

I cannot stress this enough. That shit helps A LOT when it comes down to Paypal refunds/disputes.

There’s a description box that let’s you put in what the product is/how long it’ll take/yadda yadda, and then there’s another little memo box that only you and paypal can see where you can say it’s a digital commission and doesn’t require shipping (So Donald Mcfuck can’t say that they never got their commission).

And there’s also a box for your Terms & Conditions where you can say, if you have any conflicts/want a refund - email me, or you can actually tell the user that this is a digital commission and they won’t be getting a hard copy of it.

ARTISTS. PLEASE USE PAYPAL INVOICES. it will SAVE you.
And to: the people who do this to artists – Fuck you. It’s okay if you change your mind and want a refund. But freaking TALK to us and let us know what’s going on. Let us WORK with you.

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Anonymous asked:

im bad at colors, could you give a tutorial?

anushbanush answered:

Sorry for taking so long Anon!!!

1. Choose your colors wisely

When it comes to colors, I try to pick 3 main colors. Then I make sure that my artwork revolves around these colors so that the colors won’t clash or look out of place. By doing this, I end up with one harmonious piece. Here are some examples:

2. Using 3 main colors, choose a good background.
Backgrounds are super important because they set the mood of the piece. 

Look at the impact of the background. In the first image, the light blue lessens the emphasis on the plants and allows more focus on the girl. The overall feel is nice and more summer oriented. While the second image creates an illusion which makes the leaves look like they fade out in the darkness and gives emphasis on both the leaves and the girl. The overall feel is more of a tropical forest. When choosing a background color think about how the other parts will look above that color like which part will have more emphasis and depth.

3. Match the color of the foreground to the 3 main colors and the background
An example is my drawing of Steven and Connie snorkeling. 

If you notice, the one with the X shows how the original colors don’t mix well while the one with the check shows how the colors are more unified.

Step 1 - Mix the original color with the desired color in order for it to match the background. 
Step 2 - Incorporate that color and you are done.

4. You can also search for color palettes on the internet to make you more inspired. You can learn more color combinations too.

That’s all! I hope it was helpful!

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[thundercluck-blog]

No time to type. Enjoy! :D

-Paul

[morseapple]

@azuretalks

[aphexangel]

YESYESYESYESYES THIS

I’ve had a lot of commissions with max values on R G or B values. This is why I change them while working.

[thenocturnalrodent]

One of my biggest problems with some artists on FA is how they will default to using the maximum vividness of colors and I don’t think they understand how it ruins pictures.

Just because something is blue does not mean it needs to be a vivid blue, use those colors sparingly.