I figured since you might LEARN something from these Manga Studio tutorials, I'd call this series "LEARN with the Montrose Academy" as well! (lol) Today's topic is an irritating one: How to stop repeating tones. Let's get started!

We've all been there: you paste a tone, and it repeats forever. And on top of that, it's not even the right size! What to do?! WHAT TO DO?!

Don't panic! Let's get started. So here we have the King just standing around. Let's give him a bit of scenery. (Don't know who the King is? Check out Useless King at Filthy Figments, the best all-women hentai circle on the 'net!)

First, select the area to place the tone, then open the Materials box. You can either open it with the button in the menu up top or use F6. If you want, you can use the Beginner's Assistant (F10), which has a Tone tab in the center. It looks about the same. When you find the tone you want, double-click the tone to place. I'm choosing these calming trees. King deserves it.

So why didn't the tone paste? And why can't you do anything with it? I'm not really sure why myself, but whatever. It's one of those Manga Studio quirks. If you really want to see the tone, you can click Preview in the Properties box. I would skip this step, and you'll see why.

OK, so you can now see the tone, but you still can't do anything. Now you see why I said skip the Preview step. Just shake your head like me and click OK.

Go ahead and place the tone into the panel folder. Not only does it make it easier to keep up with tones, but it keeps that pesky bleed away.

Next, click the Triangle and Bars next to the tone's name. Then select Tone Settings.

The Properties box will now have a lot of tone settings, and gasp! You can change things about the tone! Alright! You can change the density of the tone (Lines), shape of dot, and more. Let's focus on getting our tone to fit the space. Click the triangle next to Scale. This will bring up a slider. Now you can change the size of the tone. Let's make it bigger so it'll fit the space.

Yay! It now fits! But oh no! There's a little white down at the bottom. Don't worry. We can fix that.

Select the Move Tone Pattern tool at the top of the Properties box. Now you can drag and move the tone around till it looks perfect.

Click OK when you're done.

Now that's a fine looking scene!

And that's how you keep tones from repeating in Manga Studio! I hope that this tutorial was informative. If you have any questions about this or any other comic related topic, don't hesitate to email me. I'll be happy to help out! ^_^

God, I hope this posts...

I'm here to say it isn't! I finally figured out how to make word balloons in Manga Studio. While I won't say I've perfected text in Manga Studio (still can't figure out how to arc it like in Photoshop), I've found one more thing that it has over its competitors. Yay! I can make them look like real manga balloons! So how does one cast this arcane magic? Here we go!

How to Make Word Balloons in Manga Studio

I used Manga Studio EX 4.2 for this tutorial, but I know this works in Debut as well. This is one of the basic tools, so hooray!

First, select the text tool.

Then use the text tool where you want the balloon to go. Don't worry too much about the placement. You can move it around when you're done making the balloon and text. When you click where you want it, the Properties dialog box will come up with a bunch of options.

I suggest making the balloon first, so click the "Dialog Balloon Settings" tab. You'll see this dialog box after you click. You can use the "Generate Dialog Balloon" setting, but it's just a normal shape tool. It's not going to look as cool as the materials that Manga Studio comes with. Click "Select Dialog Balloon from Materials". After all, you bought Manga Studio for the materials. If you wanted to make word balloons yourself, you'd do what I used to do and make them manually in Photoshop, and that's fucking stupid. XD

Look at that selection! So many of your favorite manga word balloons. I'm going with "Exclamation - Bold Line" since Chiaki is yelling.

OMG! It's a floating word balloon! Before I would use the Materials and place it myself, but that meant I had to crop it, take out the white, etc., etc. But now, I've got a nice, contained word balloon that I can resize with the corner marks however I like. So convenient!

So now it's time to place some text. I like to use Centered text in balloons, so I selected that (set "Align" to "Align Center"), and I use LetterOMatic for comic text. I type out what I want, and then I can change the size with either the Text Size drag-down menu or directly change the size with the corner marks around the text. I prefer using the corner marks because it's easier.

The text and balloon aren't really centered yet, so after clicking OK on the dialog box, I keep the Text Tool selected. I can now move the balloon and the text around. So nice! It does it like magic.

And now we have a nice exclamation word balloon. So what if I want to do a normal word balloon with a tail?

Well, make a normal word balloon. This doesn't work with the exclamation ones. I selected "Deformed Circle 01", the most manga looking one.

So after getting it all straight and how I want it to look, I go and click the button that looks like a "Play Pause" combo in the word balloon's layer in the Layer window. Select "Layer Properties".

The Properties dialog box will come up. Select the "Text" tab.

Then select "Dialog Balloon Settings".

There are two kinds of word balloon tails you can use: Curve Tail...

Or Linear Tail. It's your choice. I like the curved ones myself, so we'll go with that.

Now, just draw the tail like you would with the Line Tool. The Curve Tail includes a extra step of pulling the curve of the tail like with the Curve Line Tool.

And there you go!

I didn't curve it all that much, but you get the idea. ^_^;;

There is a nice dialog box you can use that has all the tools on it if you want to use it. I don't because it takes up too much "real estate" on the screen. If you want to use the "Beginner's Assistant" just go to Window in the menu bar, and select "Beginner's Assistant", or use the shortcut F10.

And there's the Beginner's Assistant! It really is a useful tool when you're starting out.

So there's my tutorial on word balloons in Manga Studio! I hope it was helpful. If you have anymore questions, don't hesitate to send me an email or post a comment on Facebook! I'm going to figure out how to curve and arc the text next. Oh boy...

ACHIEVEMENT!

Click for photos!

Well, another Ichibancon down! And this one was even more awesome than last year's! I loved the hotel layout, and damn, I love walking Charlotte. The only irritation was the McDonald's was closed on Sunday. DAMN YOU, BANKERS!! Sunday is the day for McDonald's breakfast! Oh well. Click the pic above to check out my Ichibancon 2012 photos. ^_^

On to the Ichibancon 2012 sketches! I didn't get pics of all of the sketches, but I did manage to take a good bit. I think I did somewhere around 30 for the weekend. Whew! Let's get started:

Britain asked for this commission of "himself" as a pony. Of course it has to be a unicorn!

I did this sketch for the winner of the Sailor Moon Costume Contest. The winner was the most adorable little girl in a Sailor Moon costume. I have her pic in the Ichibancon 2012 photos on Facebook.

XD I did this for the owner of Comics, Cards, and Collectables in Canton, OH, for being a good sport and being pranked by the Brony Panel. Check out this pic of Twilight Sparkle prank calling him.

Rarity is always fun to draw because of all the flounces and ruffles.

Click for NSFW

Octavia and Vinyl Scratch as girls, doing what the bronies demand (and me too!). ^_^

Cute little snow leopard boy~!

Aw... I'm starting to become a Flutterdash fan, though Lyra/Bon Bon is my fave still.

I love the OC ponies! That's Sky Song on the left. I love Vinyl's expression. ^_^

This is a Homestuck/Touhou/OC combo pic. I love Flandre's wings. I almost want to cosplay her.

My favorite commissioners showed up again! Last year it was Anime Poker and Pyramid Head and Konata, aka RAPIN' EVERYDAY, BITCHES!, and they did not disappoint this year. That's their friend on the left being worshiped by Pyramid Head (of course), Gamzee, and Flandre. XD

Old School Represent!

More from my favorite commissioners! The original had Gamzee in the chair, but my mischievous patron came back without the group and switched it up. Damn, Prof. Layton is a damn good hunter! I see a Konata, a Furret, a Gamzee, and a "Pony" (Roy Mustang, but there were so many pony requests, I went with a synonym for him XD ). This is the fuckup version. Layton's supposed to be holding a snifter of Faygo. Gah... I fixed it in the final version though.

More Gamzee! This time enjoying the finer things in life with the Boss.

I need to see Tiger & Bunny. There's a lot of lovely yaoi out there based on it. Chomp! ^_^

I think this one turned out to be the best one technically I did all weekend. It certainly took a long time! All that shading. Whew!

Once again, I love OC ponies! This is "Spectrum". I gave him that name because he's a TV engineer pony. How does he use the screw? That always bothers me about ponies. O_o;;

This is "Dutchie Pass". I love that name. ^_^ He's a storyteller pony. I'm so going to color this one.

Ponygirls! I didn't get a lot of request for ponygirls (something about them being creepy or something; whatever...), but I did get one! Yay!

More Sky Song! The request was for her to look longingly at Rainbow Dash, but I wanted to make it a "happy longing", like there's a chance. <3

I got a few couple requests over the weekend! I love doing these because they make people so happy. ^_^

Click for NSFW

All I got to say is "FUCK THE RAINBOW!" And is that Derpy watching? BEST COMMISSION OF THE WEEKEND.

This little girl was one of my neighbors in the Artists Alley, and she and I became "Twilight Sparkle Friends" because we both got her for Christmas. Yay! Friendship is Magic! ^_^

Click for NSFW

Final commission of Ichibancon 2012! And what a one to end on! Cute and hot! ^_^

Click for Very NSFW

This is a doozy! Finally, here's the quick hentai sketches from the Filthy Figments panel at Tsubasacon 2011. Whew! Not as many as say the Animazement 2011 or SeishunCon II sets, but still, it was frenzied, sexy fun! Enjoy!

Well, that's it for right now. My next con is KiraKira Con 2012 at UNC Charlotte. I need to get Itari Party Spring Catalogue 2012 and Useless King Sampler done. I think I have enough time. *looks at pile of work under desk* Well, maybe... ^_^;;

JUST ONE MORE.

Click for larger image

Here's my New Year's pic for the Year of the Dragon! Better late than never, huh? ^_^;;

I'll have a big post tomorrow including the hentai quick sketches from the Filthy Figments panel at Tsubasacon 2011 and sketches from Ichibancon 2012. Just keep checking the SGVY front page or check the Facebook page directly. See you tomorrow! ^_^

Three foxes.