Most people know that I don’t have much skill when it comes to drawing. This is one of the reasons I got into doing 3D stuff to begin with. While I do enjoy working in 3D, there are times when I want to achieve a more 2D finished image. I’ve researched a number of different ways of doing this and each one has a different result.
The image on the left was done in Daz Studio using a toon filter plug-in. While the coloring comes out pretty well, I find it a bit difficult to get satisfactory shading. There really isn’t a vast amount of controls for the shading and there’s really no way to split different aspects of the image into layers so that it can be edited in an image editor. On the plus side, though, this sort of image can be done very quickly with Daz Studio.
The middle image was done in Carrara using a toon filter plug-in. The problem with this image is that some things come out rather jaggy. Like working Daz Studio, it’s pretty quick for me to produce this image in Carrara. While you can split different aspects of the image into layers for post editing, Carrara can’t do it using the toon plug-in.
The image on the right was done in Manga Studio. First, I posed the figure in Daz Studio and then I exported it as a wavefront object. This pretty much turns the figure into a statue but it’s something you can import into Manga Studio. While there, it creates a smoot outline as well as a pretty decent job at shading. Unfortunately the coloring as to be done by hand. This is actually a positive thing, though, since it gives you ultimate control over how things look in the end. While this is the longest process, I think it has the best final result.
So, I think I finally settled on how I’ll be creating more 2D images in the future. I’m sure that I’ll get quicker with the coloring process in Manga Studio after a bit of time. Luckily I have a small Wacom tablet for this because I don’t think it would be possible to do it with a mouse. The next thing I need to do is to try to put together an entire scene.
