Hi,

I'm hoping someone here who is experienced with comic strip creation, and Manga Studio 5 may be able to point me in the right direction. .....

I'm trying to find out a question about SmithMicro Manga Studio 5. It seems to be the highest rated "comics creation" software, however I need a good sized library of "pre-made" characters and backgrounds. You see, I'm not a very good illustrator, and I'd like to be able to quickly use the program to make comic strips without having to spend hours and hours creating characters from scratch. I'd like to be able to just pick a character and background from a library, drop it into a comic strip template, and add word balloons & text, simple as that. (for now).  I will explore drawing my own creations later on, but for now I need quick. SmithMicro tech support said the content it comes with is "limited", and it's more of an illustrator's type program, but he really didn't say exactly how limited the libraries are. I'm wondering since it is a very good program, maybe I can find a big library of free license cartoon-type characters and backgrounds I can purchase to import into the program, to make up for MangaStudio's lack of included content?

The only other software I've found that is similar is Comics Creator by Summitsoft, but it's not as highly rated as Manga, and it only exports in PDF.

The other thought I had was I may be able to use Comic Creator, which although is a very basic beginner program, has quite a bit of included content, (supposedly 500+ characters and backgrounds), so maybe I could make my basic layout with characters and background in a strip template, then export to PDF, then somehow import that PDF into Manga Studio. I'm wondering would that possibly allow me to further edit and color the imported file in Manga?

Another thought I had was maybe I could export some characters from Comic Creator as PDF and import and rig them with bones in Manga? I don't really know if I could import PDF into Manga for further editing though. These are questions I'm hoping some experienced users here could answer for me, before I decide on what program(s) to purchase.

I do also have a copy of PoserPro2010, but my PC I was using Poser on is very slow, so I haven't upgraded or used the program in quite some time. My laptop isn't much faster, but comic illustration would probably be less taxing on my resources than animation would I'm guessing.  (My laptop is a single core i3, 2.53GHz, 4GB RAM, standard Intel HD graphics card.)

Creating comic strips is something I've always aspired to do, and now that I'm retired I'd like to explore it to see what I can do with it. Hopefully I can create some stuff that will make people laugh! :-) Could some of you experienced comic creators please help me? I would greatly appreciate it, thank you!

Musikman

I would recommend Manga Studio, have it by my own. But over RDNA is a active  Manga Studio Forum where you can look into too. Maybe you find somebidy who helps you out with content.

There is not a library of characters and sets available for Manga Studio 5. However, if you have access to Poser Pro Game Dev, you can export characters from Poser in FBX format and drag and drop them into a Manga Studio document. Then you can pose them in Manga Studio as needed. It's not ideal, the 3D features of the application are limited, as the program is designed for illustrators. Manga Studio currently does not offer a system for rigging your own character either. Illustudio, the Japanese version of Manga Studio had (or has, I don't know if it's still available) a stand alone app you could use to rig 3D models for use in Manga Studio but that only works with 3D models, they also have a library of content for Illustudio but to my knowledge that isn't compatible with Manga Studio. It sounds like you're confusing what Manga Studio does with what Anime Studio does. Two different programs. 

My suggestion? If you're looking to use Manga Studio but you're uncomfortable with your drawing ability is to draw. Every day. That's the only way to improve. Otherwise, you can do poses and renders in Poser, bring the images into Manga Studio and either letter those or ink over them to create your pages.

Thank you for the replies.

Ladonna, not sure what RDNA is, could you clarify please. Is that another website/forum?

Teyon, just to give you a better idea of what I'm trying to accomplish regarding the finished product......I'm not necessarily looking for my characters to be all 3D, or highly detailed for that matter. I do like the look of detailed 3D, but I think that is beyond my skill level at the moment. So all I'm trying to do is put together some 2D characters and backgrounds into a comic strip, kinda like you would see in your local newspaper comic section. Characters don't have to look too realisticly 3D human, but rather I could settle for just basic looking 2D characters, for example maybe that look similarly along the lines of The Simpsons, or Family Guy, and not necessarily animated, at least not in the beginning.

I will take your good advice and practice drawing every day. As for Poser, well I'll have to dig up my PoserPro2010 disc and install it to see how well it runs on my laptop, but I was hoping to not have to immediately use Poser in order to accomplish the simplicity of what I'm looking to start off with. I'm not sure exactly what you mean when you say "do poses and renders in Poser, bring the images into Manga Studio and either letter those or ink over them to create your pages."  How far are you suggesting that I process the character in Poser? Do you mean add everything, all the features in Poser, ie....hair, clothing, skin, etc....before exporting? Sorry, I'm just not very familiar with the process you are describing. 

If I exported a basic finished comic strip with characters and backgrounds in panels in PDF format out of Comic Creator software, then import that into Manga Studio, I wonder how much I could do with it from there, ie...color, etc....

Hope I have explained myself well enough, and thanks again for the help and advice.

Well PDF would NOT be the way to go. I don't believe Manga Studio 5 has the ability to read PDF files. You would have to use PSD, PNG, JPG, TIFF, TARGA or BMP. Once loaded into the program you can rasterize them after scaling and placing them where you want. This will allow you to work on the image like any other drawing created in the software.

As for the Poser statement I made, yes, if you have Poser, you can Clothe, Pose and render images of characters in Poser, Export the rendered images as PNG files and import those PNG files into Manga Studio. Then you can scale and place them as needed to fit your strip. Once done with that, you can choose to either use the images as is or ink/trace (note that inking is NOT tracing) over them on a new blank layer. Then delete the layer with the render, leaving you only the lineart. I can make a video illustrating the process if you like.

So I forgot I had a meeting today and won't be able to make the video right now. Instead, here's a few images illustrating the basic use of Poser with Manga Studio. There's a more advanced use involving FBX but let's just focus on the easiest method for now.

 Step 1. Pose and clothe the figure as needed.

Step2.  Render the image and export out as PNG. It's best to make sure you hide the background and ground plane for this step. That gives you more control as to how the character is placed.

Step 3.  Load the image into Manga Studio and place and/or scale as desired.

Step 4. If needed, rasterize the image. Note that this step is only needed if you desire to manipulate the image directly. If your plan is to ink over the image on a new layer, this step is not needed.

Step 5. On a new layer, ink over your render using one of Manga Studio's many inking brushes.  Note, to make visibility easier you can turn the entire render layer to a single color tone to avoid confusion with your new line art. To do this, you hit the Blue and White square in the Effect tab in the image in my previous post. It's a one click step.

Step 6. Finally, when you're happy with your work, delete or hide the render layer, leaving only your line art visible. You can now color your line art or simply print your image if you're making a black and white book.

There you have it. A very basic way to use Poser with Manga Studio. I hope that helped illustrate my point. If you have more questions about Manga Studio, Poser or using the two together, feel free to ask. I'm not well today but I'll happily pop in and answer.

Teyon,

Sorry you aren't feeling well today.  Your step by step is appreciated by many users I'm sure.  Take good care and get well soon.

Boni

Happy to help Boni and thanks. Meeting just ended. So I'll be off an online all day if there are any questions.

This was made in MS5 EX
links will only be visible if ya signed in to Devaint Art Shatter at 4000x4000 

Magna Studio & Clip Studio Paint is the same app.

Clip Studio Paint. is for Art
Clip Studio Paint EX. is for Art & is helpful for making comic books.

RDNA forums
http://forum.runtimedna.com/forumdisplay.php?330-Manga-Studio-Forum

I can use any 2D app I want. I think MS5 is the best so I use MS5

I know you didn't ask about this but with out painting any thing.
you could make Poser renders and run them threw
 https://www.topazlabs.com/ certain filters ,maybe clean or maybe simplified and any others u liked .will give them a painted 2D look.
they can't automatically blacked inked like Teyon's but will have a painted look to them.

Wow! you guys are awesome! Thanks for taking the time to post all the step by step images Teyon, much appreciated! Sorry to hear you're not feeling well, hope you get better soon (chicken soup with lots of cayenne pepper always helps me). And sorry I wasn't able to be on here for so many hours, just been a very busy day, and it's 2am here now, so I'll be posting and checking replies tomorrow after some much needed rest!

So basically, if I have this straight.....you used Poser to give you a character and in a pose you needed, then exported it as PNG to be imported into MS5. Then you seem to use MS5 kind of like I have noticed similar as when I've used layers in Gimp. So you're using a second layer over the original PNG Poser image, that way if you make a mistake the original PNG remains in tact and you can try again, or experiment with different colors. I think I understand. 

So in this example, Poser wasn't really used for anything except a basic character in a pose with basic clothing applied and then render it out. (Hope I even remember how to properly attach clothes! been a long time). A friend of mine who has been using Poser for a long time just replied to an email I sent him, and he suggested the very same process using Poser, and mentioned using the preview render instead of firefly. He also mentioned that Poser Pro 2014 has quite a good comic rendering engine, (but I have 2010 version and would have to spend more to upgrade). Another interesting thing he said was he just picked up a copy of Anime Studio, and said I could maybe look at that for simple characters. It has a character creation wizard, and as I'm not so interested in the actual animation features it may be enough. I'll have to look into that a bit further though, don't know enough about all this yet.

I'm also remembering the kind of characters that poser has, and can't remember if it had any more simple characters like the ones I mentioned, similar to Family Guy or Simpsons, those type of cartooney looking characters. Poser seems to have the human looking characters covered quite well, so I'm good there. With some practice I could probably draw some very simple cartooney characters, however, my question would be this........would I have to keep drawing the same character over and over every time I want that character to have a different pose?? That seems like a lot of time consuming work that I'm trying to avoid going into this. I don't mind spending time creating, but I don't want to get discouraged because I'm spending too much time trying to draw, and if it's taking too long to create a completed comic strip. That's why I was looking for simple 2D characters, and backgrounds that I can drop into a strip from a library.I would love to draw everything myself, but I'm not an artist per say, so that would have to be developed over time, and would slow me down some as far as finishing some comic strips.

Speaking of backgrounds......we really haven't touched on where I might be able to find some backgrounds to use. It's too bad you say MS5 won't import or use PDF files, because I know Comic Creator has a lot of pre-made backgrounds. I wonder if there's a way to convert a PDF file over to a format that MS5 likes, maybe Jpeg or something? Then I could have access to a lot of ready made stuff from CC, in addition to having Poser's character set and posing tools.

Whoa, nice image RorrKonn! Thanks for the additional suggestions as well. That is a good idea about running them through filters, god it's been so long since I've used Poser though, I have to brush off the cobwebs. I got so frustrated with that program before, I almost don't even want to re-install it! I was really out of my league with what animations I was trying to do with it before though, this seems a lot simpler than that at least.

I was looking at the differences between MS5 and MS5 EX, not sure I completely understand why one is better than the other, but then I'm tired too now, so will look it over at Smith Micro again tomorrow. Cheers guys, and thanks so much for taking the time to explain this process.

Btw, I appreciate the images you posted....the method of learning that has always been best for me is visual, ie....watching tutorial videos, etc...reading manuals really takes me much longer to grasp.

summitsoft sells clip art packs n all & I would bet that comic creator and anything summit sells will use .jpg's.probably have some png, tifs ,psd
I've never seen a CGI app that didn't have .jpg's

MS5 & MS5EX is the same app for graphics ones not better then the other. but EX is for multiple page comics. 
So MS5EX helps you make a multiple page comic .formatting,editing text on multiple pages all at once n all that editing books stuff.

the EX part has nothing to do with making Art .

For toon characters for poser I like 3duniverse (Daz), Nursoda (Rendo), and LittleFox (Rdna). PhilC has some good ones too.

And still no love for Poser's toons. :-/

Wow! you guys are awesome! Thanks for taking the time to post all the step by step images Teyon, much appreciated! Sorry to hear you're not feeling well, hope you get better soon (chicken soup with lots of cayenne pepper always helps me). And sorry I wasn't able to be on here for so many hours, just been a very busy day, and it's 2am here now, so I'll be posting and checking replies tomorrow after some much needed rest!

So basically, if I have this straight.....you used Poser to give you a character and in a pose you needed, then exported it as PNG to be imported into MS5. Then you seem to use MS5 kind of like I have noticed similar as when I've used layers in Gimp. So you're using a second layer over the original PNG Poser image, that way if you make a mistake the original PNG remains in tact and you can try again, or experiment with different colors. I think I understand. 

So in this example, Poser wasn't really used for anything except a basic character in a pose with basic clothing applied and then render it out. (Hope I even remember how to properly attach clothes! been a long time). A friend of mine who has been using Poser for a long time just replied to an email I sent him, and he suggested the very same process using Poser, and mentioned using the preview render instead of firefly. He also mentioned that Poser Pro 2014 has quite a good comic rendering engine, (but I have 2010 version and would have to spend more to upgrade). Another interesting thing he said was he just picked up a copy of Anime Studio, and said I could maybe look at that for simple characters. It has a character creation wizard, and as I'm not so interested in the actual animation features it may be enough. I'll have to look into that a bit further though, don't know enough about all this yet.

I'm also remembering the kind of characters that poser has, and can't remember if it had any more simple characters like the ones I mentioned, similar to Family Guy or Simpsons, those type of cartooney looking characters. Poser seems to have the human looking characters covered quite well, so I'm good there. With some practice I could probably draw some very simple cartooney characters, however, my question would be this........would I have to keep drawing the same character over and over every time I want that character to have a different pose?? That seems like a lot of time consuming work that I'm trying to avoid going into this. I don't mind spending time creating, but I don't want to get discouraged because I'm spending too much time trying to draw, and if it's taking too long to create a completed comic strip. That's why I was looking for simple 2D characters, and backgrounds that I can drop into a strip from a library.I would love to draw everything myself, but I'm not an artist per say, so that would have to be developed over time, and would slow me down some as far as finishing some comic strips.

Speaking of backgrounds......we really haven't touched on where I might be able to find some backgrounds to use. It's too bad you say MS5 won't import or use PDF files, because I know Comic Creator has a lot of pre-made backgrounds. I wonder if there's a way to convert a PDF file over to a format that MS5 likes, maybe Jpeg or something? Then I could have access to a lot of ready made stuff from CC, in addition to having Poser's character set and posing tools.

Whoa, nice image RorrKonn! Thanks for the additional suggestions as well. That is a good idea about running them through filters, god it's been so long since I've used Poser though, I have to brush off the cobwebs. I got so frustrated with that program before, I almost don't even want to re-install it! I was really out of my league with what animations I was trying to do with it before though, this seems a lot simpler than that at least.

I was looking at the differences between MS5 and MS5 EX, not sure I completely understand why one is better than the other, but then I'm tired too now, so will look it over at Smith Micro again tomorrow. Cheers guys, and thanks so much for taking the time to explain this process.

Glad to help. Yes, you got the idea down pretty much. I used Firefly because it lays down shadows on the figure a bit better than the preview renderer. As for the Character Creator in Anime Studio, as the guy who made most of the parts used in the character creator, I can say it will result in simple character shape that's far more toon based. Anime Studio's not really meant for Comics but there's no reason you can't use the same method I did but replace Poser with Anime Studio.  Sadly, the new toon characters I created aren't in Poser Pro 2010, they're in Poser Pro 2014. They're created in a style similar to Dreamworks/Pixar/Sony Imageworks. 

They're fairly simple to work with as characters go. Maybe they'll entice you to upgrade? :D

MS5EX has more features than MS5. It's meant more for professional work, so if that's not your goal, you may be fine with MS5 instead of MS5EX.

And still no love for Poser's toons. :-/

I keep forgetting that kid exists. That middle expression will always be one of my faves.

http://kctc.francemi.net/ has an adorable baby toon named Pippin. Scroll down the left frame under People.

There's also Samedi and the Mummy at RDNA.

Thanks again everyone, much appreciate the info!

I did have a couple more questions typed out, but lost them! :-( I'll try to remember them and put them in bold below.....

The Pixar style characters are very cool, nice work!  It did get me thinking about upgrading. :-)  I'm an older guy, so when I think of comics that I'd like to create, I tend to think (most of the time) of the ones I grew up with that look more 2D, like Bugs Bunny, Huckleberry Hound, Yogi Bear, etc...you get the idea. Aside from creating 2D characters using your method and the characters in Poser or Anime, if I am even successful at drawing some 2D tooney characters from scratch in MS5, will I have to keep drawing them over and over from scratch every time I need a different expression or pose? Or does anyone here know of some kind of shortcut for that?

How about backgrounds, any suggestions on how to produce them fairly quickly instead of drawing them from scratch all the time? I realize I'll have to do some drawing, but I'm just trying to save time.

As for upgrading Poser, it would depend which would be cheaper, the poser upgrade or buying Anime, since either program would be able to use the method you've described in your photo tutorial...in Anime Studio, can anyone tell me if the Character Creation Wizard would be something that would speed up the process of making 2D toon-type characters from scratch that I could export and use in MS5 ?

As for Comic Creator having jpegs, I don't know, but I do know it only exports in PDF.  Unless there is a way to convert PDF images to Jpegs that someone may know of? I don't know if Adobe PDF viewer will do that, anyone know?

Thanks Vascania, good to know there is some content out there I can get, much appreciated.

I do understand the biggest difference between MS5 and MS5 EX, in that EX can do full books, don't think I'll need that right now.

All great info, thanks again, will check back here in awhile.

You could make a model sheet then cut and paste. Generally, we do actually draw those things over and over again but if you can minimize it with a model sheet showing the character from various angles and maybe an expression sheet showing the face in various expressions at different angles. That way, you at least have a starting place I guess. Like I said though, in comics, you usually have to draw it over and over again. The latest version of Poser has a "comic" like render option that could help with the background bit. If you can find a model that fits the backdrop you need, you can run it through Poser, do a render and then use that render as a backdrop. Again, it's going to require an upgrade or if you're going to stick with Poser Pro 2010, you may want to hunt down some cartoon shaders that you can apply to objects before rendering.

I see, so you mean a file I can draw from with several poses, or even a model in pieces, and just put whatever pieces together i need for a certain pose or expression, like a quick starting point? I guess I could probably make one of those at different angles pretty quickly using Poser, just turn the model a little bit then render, and keep doing that. Why is there always so much more to all this than I think, once I get into it! :-)

I wouldn't mind using Vue for backgrounds maybe, but I don't have a license version. I like that program though, have used the free version quite a bit in the past. I never really used Poser for doing backgrounds, so I'm not familiar with what capabilities it has for that. I remember seeing some furniture in the libraries, but that's about all I remember, don't remember any buildings, cars, outdoor stuff like that.

 http://www.summitsoft.com/products/home-and-hobbies-software/comic-creator.html 
reads
**Print or publish online - **Publish your comic masterpiece! Print to PDF or post online in HTML, CBZ/CBR, WMV or Microsoft Silverlight format.
"or post online in HTLM" makes no since to me .you still need a .jpg in a HTML file for graphics.

-----------------------

Teyon or me could draw a 5 panel bugs bunny news paper toon in a few hours.
but were Artist we have computers made for Art, Wacom tablets n about all the CGI apps n Teyon is wicked with zBrush.
but we have worked at it .ya get out what ya put in.

1.ya can draw the comics but ya half to draw the comics n 5 panels of bugs is actually easy.
2 ya never draw any thing and use 3D but ya half to buy every thing.and there's copy rights to consider.
Can't make a StarTrek,Game of Thrones,etc etc comic
3.collect clip Art from here or there.that woun't be original,i could never find what I wanted ,probably wount look all that good.and there's copy rights to consider.

you could just learn to draw simple toons how to draw step by step for beginners

or find 3D toons ya like n trace over them.

I know every one thinks it's just Art it will be easy.

to quote King Henry the 8th.
I can walk out in to the street and replace all my noblemen with ease.
but not even all my noblemen can replace one Artist.

All very good points indeed RorrKonn!  I do understand that there will be some drawing and learning on my part, I'm just hoping to spend the majority of my time creating rather than reading technical manuals on how to use a program. I guess there will be some of that which can't be avoided in the beginning, hopefully it becomes easier and there will be less of that as I progress. I'm a musician, so I've experienced some steep learning curves when learning to use my recording software, so I understand that some digging into the works of the programs is necessary, just hoping to minimize it as much as possible. 

Regarding Anime Studio as far as exporting stills, here's what the Smith Micro tech support rep had to say about Anime Studio Debut version....."Unless you purchase the Pro Version of Anime Studio, you can not do Still Images, since it only exports to Animations.  For Comics and Illustrations, that makes the Debut Version not such a good fit for what you are trying to do. Also, Anime Studio, unless you are satisfied with the style of the Character Wizard, it will require artistic skill to draw the figures, then Rig."

So I'm wondering why the Debut version won't export stills, that's too bad because the Pro Version is much more expensive as compared to the Debut version. There was one rather detailed and lengthy review of Anime Studio Pro 10 from an Amazon customer that got me thinking, maybe someone could shed some light on the points this guy made that frustrated him so much after his purchase, here's what he had to say..............

[["Frustratingly Cumbersome Tools and Interface. AAAARRRRGH!I really wanted to like version 10 of Anime Studio Pro. I bought this app back in the day when it was called Moho, but gave up then because of its limitations and frustrating interface. Unfortunately, years later, the latest version of the app isn’t much better. I was hoping to use Anime Studio to replace Adobe Flash, which I’ve been using over the past 10 years for cut-out style animation. Even though Flash has been used to create animation for both TV and film, Adobe still hasn’t integrated proper animation features into what is basically an interactive multimedia platform. To animate with Flash, I sort of have to trick it into doing things it's not meant to do, export my .swf files and then composite them in After Effects. Not a very effective workflow. So I decided to test out Anime Studio 10 with a small animation project and purchased it online. Well at least it's an inexpensive piece of software. Off the bat, the interface and drawing tools are absolutely arcane! For example, the familiar pencil and paint bucket icons you’ll recognize from your drawing apps behave nothing like you’d expect. There’s no bezier tool (the ubiquitous all-in-one drawing tool included in every graphics app for the past 20 years) and instead you have to click and drag the “Add Points” tool to connect points to make lines, then use the “Curvature” tool to adjust the lines, point by point. What?

Then there’s an entire set of mysterious tools with names like “Magnet”, “Delete Edge”, “Point Reduction”, “Noise”, “Stroke Exposure” which are completely foreign in design and function. It’s as if this program was written over the course of 20 years by a dozen programmers working in separate parts of the world who’d never used a computer to draw anything in their lives.

But the heart of Anime Studio is animation (right?), which is struggles to do pretty well. If you can manage to create your cut-outs in an app you’re comfortable with (Illustrator, Photoshop or Flash), with a little elbow grease you may be able to import the pieces into Anime Studio, reassemble them and rig a character with bones. Unfortunately Anime Studio will only import Illustrator 8 format, and even then my cut-out pieces were jumbled and unusable. That left me with Photoshop cut-outs, but of course that meant no vectors (for scalability); raster only. So once again I was back to viewing dozens of Anime Studio YouTube tutorials, trying to wrap my brain around the drawing tools and unusual interface.

After trying to use this program for a week, cringing and wincing and wanting to throw my iMac out the window, I finally threw in the towel instead, defeated and $150 lighter. There’s a reason why you rarely see animation of any caliber made with this program, which is a shame because if the producers took the time to redesign the drawing tools to behave like every other app out there, it could stand a chance of competing with the likes of ToonBoom and Flash. Unfortunately (again), I believe that will never happen. Sad face.]]"..........

Wow as you can see, this guy really was disappointed! I take what he said with a grain of salt though, because it's only one person's opinion, but it did get me thinking. And contrary to that, there were a few good reviews too. That all said, Anime Studio Pro 10 does seem to favor the 2D style of cartooney format I'm thinking of doing. If I go that route as an alternative to exclusively using Poser, I may end up having to get both Manga Studio 5 and Anime Studio Pro 10, but now the cost is adding up to be a little more expensive than I anticipated. Lots for me to think about before deciding to purchase anything.

Then there are the options which that customer mentioned of Flash and ToonBoom, but I know very little about either one of those.

It is helping a lot talking with everyone here, I'm learning much more about this whole process, thanks again, and welcome your thoughts on any of this. 

you don't need anime studio ,so I wouldn't bother with it at all.

I may have no choice anyway RorrKonn. My version of PoserPro(2010) may need to be upgraded, and at an upgrade price of $249.00 it's a little steep for me right now. Plus in case I don't have the PC requirements to handle even the 2010 version I have now, it may be more trouble than it's worth. What looked interesting to me about Anime Studio was the type of tooney looking 2D stuff it can produce, and the character wizard looked interesting too. Too bad that the only way I could export stills is to purchase the Pro version according to the Smith Micro Tech, and the cheapest I've seen that online was $175.00.

I guess at this point in time the only way to avoid having to invest more money beyond just purchasing MS5, is to stay with my current version of Poser and make do with that, which seems to be what you guys have been recommending all along. Probably is what I'll end up doing for now and see how I fare with that first.

I downloaded Inkscape yesterday, that's a pretty cool free program. I'm not very familiar with its capabilities yet, but I'm wondering if I'll be able to put that to use for some phase of comic creation as well?  My wife has PS6 so I have that available to me, but that is still new to me as well, and having almost exclusively used Gimp for so long I'd have to get used to the differences in UI.

made with MS5 vectors.you won't see threw it after it's painted.

you don't need poser pro or anime studio character wizard.
all you need is MS5 around $50.00 you don't even need EX.

http://my.smithmicro.com/manga-studio-5-system-requirements.html 

if the demo runs on your computer then ya good to go.
for simple toons a 2000x2000 pixels .jpg alt to be more then big enough.
you can make simple toons how to draw step by step for beginners like these with very little effort.
you just half to try it's that easy.anyone can make a circle or two MS5 will even make a circle for ya.
simple toons are really easy to draw.
in no time at all your be a charley brown master.

MS5 is the best 2D app there is now for toons MS5 is made for toons.
photoshop ,corel painter etc etc are killer app's but there not made for toons.

Looks like I have most of the requirements met, not by much, but at least I'm in the ballpark. I should be ok with MS5, my laptop's video memory is just the basic factory HD video on-board that came with it, not a separate video card, but it should do the trick. I do have 4GB RAM & 64 bit Win 7

Lol, you really are encouraging me to learn how to draw with MS5, and not even use Poser or Anime, wow you have a lot of confidence in my skills! :-)  Ok you win, I'll give it a go, but before I order it I think I'm going to spend the next few days watching some tutorials, I learn much quicker by watching someone demonstrating the program, I only have so much tolerance for reading manuals, tutorials are much better for me. I saw a copy online for only $35, seems like a good price. I don't have to buy it from Smith Micro in order to register it, do I?

Aside from drawing the characters and backgrounds from scratch, the challenge for me is likely going to be making different poses and facial expressions when I have to change those from one comic frame to another, but I'll have to experiment with it I guess to see what kind of results I get.

That "how to draw" like you posted is pretty good, I was looking at that earlier today too. Thanks! Much appreciated all your help, most everyone I've met here is very generous with their wisdom, that's very cool. ;-)

 musikman : I think the key to failure or success is ones faith in ones self.
threw bad days n insane days don't give up. if ya stick with it ya will win in the end.

I can't say about buying online.
and I have a personal policy that I only buy from the company.
So I never get the run around with any problems.

for the learning the app part.
http://my.smithmicro.com/manga-studio-5.html has some video's n there's more at youtube
for you tube n google "Manga Studio or Clip Studio Paint"
& MS5 forums are very helpful .
I'd say with in a 40 working hours easily you alt to know MS5 just fine.
"Shatter" the girl in the blue heart is what I made while I was learning MS5 took about 40 working hours.
if ya get stuck on some thing ask at the MS5 forums n move on to something else till ya get a answer.

for the learning to draw part
google has a endless supply of how to draw stuff.
I'm sure there's how to draw forums on the web also.

just believe in ya self n don't give up.your be fine.

Thanks RorrKonn, I am confident that I'll get the hang of all this, I'm just the kind of person who checks out all the details before making a buying decision. Sometimes that's a good thing, other times I suppose it's not so necessary.

Thanks for the links, I actually did watch a tutorial on MS5 last night on YouTube. It's the webinar series they have posted there. They started with a character of a girl that they had already made earlier, so this particular vid didn't show them drawing the character, only how to ink and color it. That's as far as I watched, there are more parts to the series I think. I'm going to have to look for a tutorial or two that shows someone actually using MS5 to draw a character from scratch. What I'd like to find is one that starts with a blank page, they draw a character, ink it, color it, then draw the backgrounds and size and insert both into a three or four panel cartoon strip. I think if I can find a tut like that it would really go a long way in showing me the extremes of this app.

I think at first I'd be more interested in learning how to use the tool set that will assist me with drawing something more quickly, then I can at least get a jump on things, and if I'm short on time I'll know how to churn out something quicker than just drawing everything freehand.

I am a musician, so at some point I may even want to try animating some cartoons. I can easily record music, sound fx, and voice overs for animations. So I may end up getting Anime Studio as well. The Debut version is not very expensive.

 not for the how "Manga Studio or Clip Studio Paint" works.

but just for a blank page, they draw a character, ink it, color it.
you can just google & youtube .drawing,inking,coloring. doesn't matter what app it's done in.
All 2D app's are the same pixel based alfa brush medium.
I've learned from photoshop corel painter etc etc Artist also.

Stills and animation are two different beast.
no one makes hand draws 28 frames a second for animations anymore
the modern day cartoon looking animations you see these days on TV are all 100% 3D.
Even if they look like hand drawn toons there not hand drawn there 3D with toon shaders.
no one does it like Bugs did anymore.
Now it's all done with highend 3D app's like Autodesk Max ,powerful computers with real time 3D cards or renderfarms and a Crew of 3D Artist.

I've never found a homegrown animations solution I liked so ...

RorrKonn, Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli paint all of their animation cels by hand. 

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hayao_Miyazaki

Hayao hand draws all of the storyboards that the animation team works from. Perhaps the exception, but Miyazaki-San is arguably the greatest living animator.

Check out some of his manga work (hand drawn), from Nausicca of the Valley of the Wind... (Nausicca of the Valley of the Wind manga english: image results).

I'm sure if I put my mind to it I could find countless examples (perhaps not as high profile as Ghibli) of contemporary animation productions that are done the old fashioned way, in drawn and stop-motion animation. Just making this clear, not a matter of a particular preference, in case you weren't aware.

Maybe drifting a little but, has anyone ever used this free open source onion skin style animation app? I still use an older build occasionally (along with ImageReady) to experiment with gifs, but it looks like it's being worked on again. Nifty little piece of software...

http://www.pencil2d.org/pencil2d/

Yes I have noticed that the modern day animations are 3D, most of the one I've seen in recent years seem to favor mostly the Toy Story style 3D characters. I like the look of those too, but as you mentioned,  it seems in order to get those characters perfected and realistic, the Disneys and Pixars are using all that super high end CG software, which would undoubtedly make their jobs easier and faster. I'm not really after that high end perfection, but I suppose there are advantages to working with 3D.

Forgot to post this earlier.....This short video lists the top 10 comic book making software........
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4T7RhFGjfnI

DeathMetalDesk, I did look into that Pencil software, This video I found a few days ago shows five free drawing/anime softwares, and Pencil is demonstrated as well in this video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJVQ5owmInA  Looks like they dropped the project, and in time, some others picked up where they left off. I wasn't sure if I should download it, because the only version available that I found is the newest beta, so I wasn't sure if it would work as well as the original. Do you have the original, or did you download the new beta version?

 RorrKonn's quote
no one makes hand draws 28 frames a second for animations anymore
the modern day cartoon looking animations you see these days on TV are all 100% 3D.

I was talking about my regular TV channels "the Disney channels etc etc "that speaks English.
All I ever see is 3D toons or old before computers hand draw toons ,tom n jerry,bugs etc etc.

and I know you can buy the anime network on TV.
I like english speaking anime movies. don't care for subtitles

How Hayao does his thing is fine it's his thing.
but no way are you  going to make a homegrown hand drawn animation unless your
planning on living for 300 years and only plan on releasing one movie in 300 years.

So hand drawn animations are a dead end road.

 Don't get me wrong I like Raiden.D's toon.but talk about doing something the hard way
 
 http://www.zbrushcentral.com/showthread.php?167492-Franz_WIP&p=1131086&viewfull=1#post1131086

might want to read Dragons comments

http://www.zbrushcentral.com/showthread.php?167492-Franz_WIP/page9

I've watched some credit rolls at the end of some of the animated movies I've seen, and it's amazing that even with the fast computers and modern software they're using these days, there are endless lists of artists and animators in the credits. There's a huge team of people for every aspect of the production. They must have worked very long hours back in the days of hand drawn before CG.

I'm sure google has a lot more about any animation 

some interesting stuff about snow white.

note #5 http://news.moviefone.com/2013/02/07/snow-white-and-the-seven-dwarfs-trivia/

 http://blog.modernmechanix.com/the-making-of-snow-white-and-the-seven-dwarfs/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snow_White_and_the_Seven_Dwarfs_(1937_film)#Design

http://www.buzzfeed.com/briangalindo/20-fascinating-facts-about-snow-white-and-the-seven-dwarfs#.yjPqXdYQa

Musikman, yeah I have the original. Don't imagine anything is terribly wrong with newer beta versions however, haven't tested.

It's a very modest, cute program. If that makes any sense.

Thanks RorrKonn, some amazing facts, especially this little note.....

"...At that instant was completed the first feature-length motion-picture cartoon ever created, one requiring more than 1,500,000 individual pen-and-ink drawings and water-color paintings.".

Like I said, they must have worked long hard hours back in the day!

DeathMetalDesk, thanks, that's what I was wondering. Sometimes when a program is in beta you have to keep downloading each update to keep fixing the bugs they find, and I was just looking for the most stable version to play around with. That's why I figured the original might be a better bet, but I can't find a website with the original download anymore, must not be out there anymore I guess. I saw the demo in that video (link I posted earlier), it is kind of a "cute" program, will be interesting to see how they modify it now.

Looks like I'll be getting MS5, also, after watching a few tutorial videos, I did like the features of Anime Studio, and since it was such a reasonable cost, I picked up the Debut version of that for now just to try my hand at some short animations as well. Should be interesting. Now all I have to do is figure out where I stashed my pen tablet and I'll be set to go when it arrives. Thanks for all the help, you guys really know your stuff! Seeing some of your work it kinda makes me wish I had started doing this many years ago, but I'm still going to have a lot of fun learning as I go along.

24 frames a second
2460seconds=1440
1,440 frames a minute
1,440120minutes=172,800
I Think

a 2 hour animation at 24 frames a second would take 172,800 drawings.I think.might want to check my math.
not sure about where the the million n half drawings came from.
maybe there counting every different thing in a frame or ruff drafts.
just don't know.

it's never to late to become a Artist ;)

Lol, yeah I think I'll pass on drawing 172,000 drawings, I'll be long gone from this earth by then! Then you can pick up where I left off and maybe the animation will get finished! ;-)

The only way I would ever attempt animation is with Pixar's 3D Studio n Crew ,then I'm good to go :)

 it's pretty easy to get people to understand what it would take to make a 172,000 drawings, for a animation.
to get people to understand what it would take to make a CGI animation,not so easy.

but this might.
If someone said hey musikman I liked the London Symphony Orchestra- Play the Music of The Beatles
and I want to make my own recording of The Beadles of me playing all the insterments of the London Symphony Orchestra and singing.
So what software should I buy to do this with ?

when I was young I had a Gibson flying V & messed around in some bands.
I wasn't a very good musician.
I know it would take a gifted person years n years to make there own
London Symphony Orchestra- Play the Music of The Beatles .I have a clue of what it would take to learn all those interments.

Lol, maybe Pixar will let you borrow their toys! ;-)

Yep, that's exactly what it would be like, good analogy. I actually do something similar when I write and record music. Most times I record all the instruments myself separately, then mix, master, etc.....in my own home studio I don't have the luxury of many different musicians at my disposal, so I wear all the hats, write, record, mix, master, etc...most of the time.