I wish I could use it all of the time but what holds me back is that a lot of my artistic workflow has to do with creating comics.
I know that Paintstorm Studio isn't a program dedicated to comic creation but I feel that there are very few tools that it needs to accommodate artists who want to create their own comics / graphic novels / manga. Since there are so many people who make their own comics or are interested in doing so, I feel that every digital painting program should have some basic features for comic creation.
I suggest:
1) A tool for creating speech bubbles; This tool should have options to create different kinds of speech bubbles to allow for maximum creativity. Speech balloons can come in different shapes and can have different types of strokes for borders. Speech balloons also have tails that can be short, long, straight, curved, and directed towards the character speaking. Speech bubbles are sometimes filled with color or can be black on the inside. Speech bubbles can sometimes be connected to other speech bubbles to split up what's being said into parts, which makes things easier to read. Speech bubbles maintain text inside the bubble and ensure that it is automatically centered. When it comes to speech bubbles, I have seen the most variation in manga.
2) A tool for creating panels and dividing them into different shapes; I like how programs such as Clip Studio and Medibang Paint have a panel slicing tool. This tool allows users to split up larger frames into two or more separate panels. Also, it's possible to transform a panel to create a unique shape. There's also an option to modify the kerning in order to adjust the space between the panels, and this allows for panels from the same page to be spaced out differently from each other. Another useful feature is that users can choose to draw only inside the panel and any lines that fall outside the panel get cut off, which helps a lot with cleanup. However, in some cases, artists may need to have a character or object cut off panel borders in order to make something specific pop out or create a more dramatic look. The panel tool should also allow for this. Additionally, page layouts and printing guidelines can also be useful. I've noticed that manga comics usually have the most variation in their panels.
I wouldn't ask for Paintstorm Studio to have everything useful to comic creators. That's what Clip Studio is for and it does that very well (except I can only use the desktop version because I can't get behind the subscription model on the iPad). But if Paintstorm Studio just includes a speech bubble tool and a panel creation tool, it would only be 2 tools specific to comic creation. Those are the 2 main tools needed to create comics (and a text tool too). While there are already some amazing programs for comics, I think Paintstorm Studio has its own strengths that make it an appealing program to use for creating my artwork.
I hope that you will consider adding these tools to Paintstorm Studio in the near future. I really love this program and I want to be able to do most of my work here. If these features are added, it will still be an amazing digital painting program, but even better because it will have a few basic tools to support comic creation. This would also draw in more people to Paintstorm Studio, considering that many creative people are interested in drawing their own comics.
Thank you!
