i really like to draw comics and i’m good at it so i want to put them online and design them better with a computer program. which ones are cheap, easy to use, and best for beginners?
i really like to draw comics and i’m good at it so i want to put them online and design them better with a computer program. which ones are cheap, easy to use, and best for beginners?
Any Digital imaging suite like Adobe Photoshop can be used to make comics. Some free alternatives are Paint.NET and Gimp or Gimpshop.
http://www.getpaint.net/
http://www.gimpshop.com/
ArtWeaver is a free alternative to Corel Painter:
http://www.artweaver.de/index.php?en_version
There are also some programs you can use that try to help making comics easier. Manga Studio is a popular choice for black and white comics. However, it’s pretty pricey.
There’s also TokyoPop’s Manga Creator:
It’s much much cheaper than Manga Studio, and easier to use. The downside is that it has less features. It’s up to you what you’d want to spring for.
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/review/tokyopop-manga-creator-2
There’s also Comic Book Creator 2, which is fairly cheap. Which usually means, easy to use but low on advanced features:
http://www.myplanetwide.com/products/detail/description.html?id=41
It’s up to you to find out exactly what these programs can do and decide whether it’s worth paying for that extra functionality.
If you’re on a Mac, there’s Comics Life. If you already have an older Mac it should be on your computer already, I think. If it’s not, you can download a demo here (There’s a PC version as well):
http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/imaging_3d/comiclife.html
Adobe Illustrator. for amateurs and professionals, the CS4 is $199 at http://www.gradware.com/title/view/269193
What’s important is that you use a vector based drawing program because comic arts must maintain that clean line/hard edges and will not loose quality if the image needs to be scaled.. Such as Inkscape, Illustrator, Flash, Sk1, InDesign, fireworks, CorelDraw, Xara Xtreme, Sopidopi, etc (http://www.allgraphicdesign.com/graphics/graphicsclipartanimations/clipartgraphics/fileformats/vectorgraphics/vectorgraphics-software.html).
DrawPlus v4 is a free vector program. Give it a try for starters. http://www.freeserifsoftware.com/software/DrawPlus/default.asp