In need of a program for drawing anime style art
 

Well, I was digging through my closed and uncovered the my virgin unused graphics tablet. I blew the dust off of her and plugged her in to the PC and installed the drivers. So I thought, what program would be good for doing anime style art? I have Photoshop, Painter 11, Fireworks, Illustrator, and of course, the glorious MS Paint.

None really seem to do that great of a job for sketching and doing the anime style art work, since [usually] anime is more vector-esque, rather than finely blended shades of colors. (Yes, I know some artists like Ishikei and Tony use the former, but what I want to start with is something more 'cartoony')

So any suggestions? What do you artists out there prefer? I greatly appreciate all input!

Thanks! :]

Since you already have the right software and the tablet, all you need is a tutorial or two to get a good idea on how to trace on Illustrator, before going on with some touchups on Photoshop. Both programs are standard for anyone into tracing (and for that matter, I believe that almost every animation studio use Photoshop and Illustrator as standard issue, except for a few which also add Flash as part of their repertoire for web-based animation projects).

Learn how to properly use the pentool and make that vector like style yourself and learn to use brushes
There is no real program that draws anime for you and it depends on what you want: do you want the same vector style an animation has or the brushes made look a lot of graphics have for magazines or manga. I agree with photoshop and Illustrator on this part :/

I'd say Easy Paint Tool SAI.. easy to handle for me, even better than Photoshop.

Well this might differs depending on ppl's suitability anyway.

Seconding Paint Tool SAI. I found photoshop too "wispy" for drawing and I couldn't adjust my hand to the opacity pressure sensitivity enough but SAI feels right for my sketching style.

The best program I've used for drawing anime style is Manga Studio 4 EX. Just look at the name! :P

It's quite expensive, and you'd have to pay for it because finding it online for free is illegal.

It has tones, brushes, speed lines, etc., etc., all meant for comics and manga. I just love the very handy smoothing option to make your lines crisp and vector-like, like you had said. The only reason why it's vector-like is because the program doesn't... Argh, I forgot the word for it, but sort of blend or smooth the lines you draw with the brush like it does in Photoshop!

Anyways, have fun with your tablet!

I thought you can import and export templates, then fix the stuff in Photoshop.

Haven't used the program for quite a bloody long time though. :heh:

ComiPo! Program Makes Manga for "People Who Can't Draw"
 

"The Tokyo-based software company Web Technology Com Corporation announced
on Friday a new piece of Windows software called ComiPo!, which allows users to
create their own manga with pre-created 3D characters and settings. According to
the company, even "people who can't draw" can create manga with this software."

See:

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news...-who-cant-draw


Is this the sort of thing you're looking for?

Just found a posing program called Design Doll, which can be had for free at:

http://terawell.net/terawell/?page_id=56


In case anyone's interested.