Manga Studio vs. Flash

Two Hundred Ninety Third Post: Manga Studio vs. Flash

I recently purchased Manga Studio. I really haven’t put it to the test. If I had to choose between it and buying another, slightly more expensive program, I would choose Flash. Photoshop and Paint Shop Pro are were an artist or designer should start. They are essential. But when creating graphics Flash is possibly one of the most complete programs. It combines graphics and animation. It depends on what type of art is being performed.

But consider vector graphics. Vector graphics are scalable, line art. Think about old fashion clip art. If I were going to design a comic book I could use Flash or Manga Studio. Flash is simply the more powerful program. But Manga Studio has its advantages. It is intended primarily for comics. It can add textures, word balloons, and easily format a page and series of pages. So if your passion is to produce comic books (mostly manga), then Manga Studio may be your program. The entry level program starts at $50. But if you can afford it choose Flash. It has animation options. Your pages can be store in different frames for viewing. I have seen coloring in Flash at www.alpha-shade.com .

Speaking of drawing, I like the drawings of Popular Mechanics. I recently bought their car care manual and the drawings are good. These drawings are enhanced with computer textures and tones. But nothing compares to the drawings of 30 years ago or more. In my imagination a 100 years ago being an artist would be like being a thinker such as Leonardo Davinci. You would be exploring uncharted ideas. There was no internet and America was mostly farms and factory work. The industrial revolution is on. Planes are new and you are assigned to draw a diagram that explains how to build your own flying machine.

Ok a hundred years later, here we are. The passion of drawing hasn’t changed, but the amount of time to complete the drawing has. We are in a fast pasted world and graphics need to be created just as fast. In graphic design graphics are mass produced. Only in comics, engineering graphics, and how to books do we see the graphics that take hours to draw. But once you see one of these drawings it captures the imagination. A lot of work, patience, and skill has been put into one of these drawings. It’s not an easy thing to do. Sometimes it is nice to shut down the mass production graphic machines and just draw.

So until you develop your drawings for hours... May the Creative Force be with You