Budget software and tutorials for webcomic creation
March 25, 2013 7:57 AM Subscribe
Asking for my wife - she's working on creating a webcomic using her new Wacom tablet and needs recommendations for affordable drawing/image-manipulation software as well as tutorials in their use.
Right now she has Sketchbook Express, which came with the tablet, and also a copy of GIMP on her computer. She's been watching tutorials by Scott McCloud showing how he works with Adobe Illustrator, but we don't have hundreds of dollars in the budget for that.
What she's looking for are inexpensive (< $100) tools for drawing and coloring the comic and laying out panels and word-balloons and such in an efficient manner. Professionals like McCloud seem to use layers a lot for an effective workflow, so she's trying to get a handle on that aspect of the process.
Any recommendations for webcomic-specific tutorials in the use of these budget tools will be gratefully accepted as well.
Any additional bits of advice for a new webcomic artist are also welcome. She does have copies of McCloud's Making Comics and Kurtz, et al's How to Make Webcomics already, but additional resources are always good.
Right now she has Sketchbook Express, which came with the tablet, and also a copy of GIMP on her computer. She's been watching tutorials by Scott McCloud showing how he works with Adobe Illustrator, but we don't have hundreds of dollars in the budget for that.
What she's looking for are inexpensive (< $100) tools for drawing and coloring the comic and laying out panels and word-balloons and such in an efficient manner. Professionals like McCloud seem to use layers a lot for an effective workflow, so she's trying to get a handle on that aspect of the process.
Any recommendations for webcomic-specific tutorials in the use of these budget tools will be gratefully accepted as well.
Any additional bits of advice for a new webcomic artist are also welcome. She does have copies of McCloud's Making Comics and Kurtz, et al's How to Make Webcomics already, but additional resources are always good.
Response by poster: I forgot to mention, she's using a PC.
posted by tdismukes at 8:22 AM on March 25, 2013
posted by tdismukes at 8:22 AM on March 25, 2013
Response by poster: Also forgot to mention, Windows XP.
posted by tdismukes at 8:30 AM on March 25, 2013
posted by tdismukes at 8:30 AM on March 25, 2013
Best answer: Magna Studio might do it, and if you sign up for the Smith Micro mailing list they often have sales.
posted by Sophont at 9:19 AM on March 25, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by Sophont at 9:19 AM on March 25, 2013 [1 favorite]
I'm on a phone or I'd link to a few, but if you google "Inkscape comic tutorial" you'll turn up numerous examples of doing this with a free alternative to Illustrator.
posted by Monsieur Caution at 9:54 AM on March 25, 2013
posted by Monsieur Caution at 9:54 AM on March 25, 2013
Artrage. It's pretty amazing (they've even been packing it with some wacom tablets)...full paint physics, watercolor tools, you name it...there's even a free demo version to try out
posted by sexyrobot at 10:26 AM on March 25, 2013
posted by sexyrobot at 10:26 AM on March 25, 2013
Response by poster: We picked up a copy of Manga Studio and she's really happy with it. Thanks for all your suggestions
posted by tdismukes at 9:27 AM on March 28, 2013
posted by tdismukes at 9:27 AM on March 28, 2013
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by GenericUser at 8:06 AM on March 25, 2013