Finally got round to it! This is my review of CELSYS illust studio with examples taken from the latest drawing I’ve done using it.
Took me a while to figure out that I was drawing in low resolutions so I started this drawing using the B5 350 dpi preset. It makes a huge difference to the quality of the line work in my opinion.
Availability
Before I get straight into the review, I should mention that at the time of writing this software is only available in Japan or through online distributors, and even then it will still only install and run properly on a a Japanese PC. To run it in english you’ll need to get a full retail copy, install it using ‘app locale’ on windows XP/vista/7 and then grab the translation tool from Kaetemi’s blog to translate the language file.
All vs. All-in-one
If you’ve been searching for the perfect illustration and coloring tool you’ve probably met with the considerable challenge of dealing with hundreds of differing opinions. This guy says Adobe Photoshop is the best for coloring but that dude swears by the real media brushes in Corel Painter and all the while you’re wondering why because neither offer vector capabilities so you’d have to shell out the cash for Adobe Illustrator as well. It’s aggravating because not only are there so many programs to choose from, but everyone uses them differently so you’ll rarely find books that say ‘How to draw manga style in Photoshop’ because even if they did, a million other people would claim that method to be wrong.
So wouldn’t it be refreshing if a company would say, ‘hang on a minute, you guys just want to make manga and anime right? Here’s a program that can do it cheaply, better than the competition, more easily and plus, here’s a webpage with 60 tutorials on how to do it + alternatives!’. It’d be great wouldn’t it? Well, that’s the kind of company CELSYS is. CELSYS is the original maker of the quite famous Comic Studio Debut/EX comic drawing software distributed by Smith Micro in the west under the name ‘Manga Studio‘. That’s the software I started with, and probably part of the reason why I love illust studio so much.
Now despite being a fantastic piece of software for doing brilliant line work, Manga Studio (even with version 4) is not aimed at people who need to colour their work. For that you’d need a separate program like the GIMP or Adobe Photoshop and that’s why illust studio exists. It competes quite directly with the privately developed ‘Paint Tool SAI‘, also pretty unavailable in the west unless you can grab it online. For anime and manga artists SAI is one of the most popular apps I know of because it’s tiny, runs on even the most lame PC, does beautiful line work AND great colouring options. Problem is, the developer is rumoured to have given up developing it (*sad face*). The solution, CELSYS smells a gap in the market, makes illust studio, makes it many times cheaper than Comic Studio (iS for 6900 yen vs. MS EX4 for 40000 yen). An all in one solution that not only tries to offer what SAI does, but even comes with a toolbars preset to make it look identical to SAI.
Look familiar?
Can it make ‘my style’ of illustration?
Like for music, for every style of music out there you need to find out what instruments the composer used to get that kind of result. You could get similar results writing the same music using different instruments, but it wouldn’t be the same. This is unfortunately true in graphics too, and the software/hardware you use is likely to affect your style of drawing. Everytime I see a beautiful piece of work with something I’ve not seen before I ask what software the artist used. This is the best way to figure out what software is best for you in my opinion and it applies to illust studio as well. Check the illuststudio.net to see examples of what people can do in illust studio or even better, try and get a demo to try it for yourself.
The short answer if you’re an ‘anime artist’ (if this term even exists) is 9 times out of 10…yes. Because it is very very versatile. It’s my opinion that you’ll spend less time hacking illust studio to get a result and more time focusing on the what matters, the drawing itself.
Line art features (pencils, pens, vector options etc…)
I’ll go over the vector features first. If you’re an MS EX4 user then this will all be old hat to you. Illust studio has pretty much every feature that MS EX4 has except for the comic specific functions like making panels, organising pages into books and a few other bits and bobs. In illust studio you’ll find it easy to do your rough sketches. They suggest blue pencil first, followed by a more detailed rough in red pencil on a separate layer.
At this stage MS EX4 and iS are particularly brilliant because of the selection tools context menu. The video below demonstrates how simple it is to select a layer, chop it up and move it about.
Once you’ve got your sketching done, drop your vector line work on top of that. MS EX4 and iS are brilliant at this because of their ability to ‘correct’ your shaky hand. If you’d prefer to use a ruler, you can also use bezier curves to draw a guideline and then trace over it with the pen to give it your pressure sensitive touch (for variable line width). (note: I didn’t plug my wacom in for this video so the pressure sensitive part didn’t really work).
Colouring Tools
Once you’ve got the line art done and dusted, you’ll want to get coloring! The best part is that you don’t have to export an massive hi-res lossless file to photoshop because illust studio makes use of your vector information in order to make coloring far more efficient. The features that make this possible are the ‘Protrude from reference layer’ function, the fill gaps tool, and a very well implemented set of clipping folders. The first function is described in a previous video a made below.
If you’d rather not paint the base colours in by hand, you can use the ‘fill’ tool and its friend the ‘closed area fill’ tool. Any small gaps that aren’t filled in by the fill tool can be finished off with the closed area fill tool. Then, when you’re shading your base colours later, you simply make a clipping folder, add a new raster layer on top of the base colour layer. This automatically masks the image so that any painting on higher layers in the folder are clipped to the base paint. Useful!
Usability
With the toolbars preset menu when you first start illust studio I’d be very surprised if you couldn’t find a preset you weren’t already familiar with. With the translation only partially done you’ll find a number of features totally cryptic with ‘RASTERU’ instead of raster or ‘FIRUTAREYA’ for ‘filter layer’. However, if you have a little patience, watch the videos on this Sonic Images or on illuststudio.net you’ll be up and running in no time. Once you know the buttons you’ll find that you don’t read the text anymore anyway 
Results
I’ve been using illust studio for a couple weeks but I believe the results have been very good indeed. I only had a demo of Paint Tool SAI, but for lineart I’d say that illust studio is on par or perhaps even better than SAI. It depends on your art style because I think certain types of uber clean lines and smooth curves work better in SAI but at the risk of looking a little sanitary and visual novel-esque (which can be a good thing!). Below is the finished drawing. It’s hard cel-shaded though you could just as easily do a soft shading job in illust studio.
The drawing is called ‘Hikari’ and is my original character for an upcoming manga though I can’t say when I’ll ever get it done!
Verdict
Ease of use: 9 (if you speak Japanese) and 7 (if you speak english, use iS with the translated dll and trawl through the manual+tutorials on illuststudio.net using google translate)
Features: 8. Not 10 because SAI-enthusiasts are likely to miss their old way of doing things.
Support: 9. Illust studio runs a brilliant website with tutorials, downloadable materials and is constantly updating the software with new features.
Value for Money: 10. It’s bargainous for graphics software! About $220 less than Manga Studio, $100′s cheaper than owning photoshop + illustrator and roughly the same price and Paint Tool SAI.
Final Verdict: Go to Japan and buy it now. Or import it. No questions.
That’s all I can say for now. I’ll continue to blog and update as I use illust studio and if you have any questions about it I’d be happy to answer them! There’s a pretty good discussion about the software on the Paint Tool SAI forums which seems to have gone quiet recently.
p.s. If you are Smith Micro, PLEASE distribute illust studio in the UK. pleeeeeeaseeee!
-Christopher
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Of course Smith Micro could take a real market here .__.
I already asked them in the question jar. XD
For now I’ll keep MS debut and Painter 11.
It must be hard for them to keep up with all the new software that comes out in Japan! Looks like CELSYS is about to release ‘Pose Studio’ for creating new poses in 3d. Another great programme I’d like to see make it over here.
Thanx for the review amigo
Btw, I’m a comic book artist and a celsys client too. I use all their products (Comicstudio4EX, Illuststudio? and Retas Pro! HD) and I must say that I’m very content with the results that i have reached thanx to these products.
Ps: If someone is interested in buying a copy of Retas pro! HD (Stylos HD, Traceman, Paintman and CoreRetas) for half the price send me a message to (hichamstudio@mail.com)
Hey,
I’ve been waiting a while for IllustStudio to come to Mac and in english.
And since you seem to run a Mac, I’d like to know if you’re using it in Wine or VMware Fusion or Parallels Desktop.
thnx
Hi Tobias!
There was a rumour last year that IllustStudio would be released on the Mac on the Celsys website but I’ve not heard anything since then so I wouldn’t hold out for it. I can run IllustStudio on my Macbook Pro using Parallels Desktop 6 and it runs very well but I prefer to reboot the Mac into Windows using Boot Camp anyway to be more efficient with RAM. Works perfectly
Would like to ask where did you purchase a copy of Illust Studio? Been looking for ages, couldn’t find it any where else.
Sadly Illust Studio is still only available in Japan. However, if I’m not mistaken, amazon ships worldwide from the amazon.co.jp site! Another good, downloadable alternative, is Paint Tool SAI which you can purchase really cheaply online.