Clip Studio Paint by Example E-Book

Ludovico Serra

• Herausgeber: Packt Publishing
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 413

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2021

Beschreibung

Clip Studio Paint is powerful art software that can help you create artistic work with its in-built material organizer, 3D integration, and group work features. It also provides other features that can speed up the workflow of illustrators, concept artists, and comic artists. With Clip Studio Paint by Example, you’ll learn how to use CSP effectively for a wide variety of artistic purposes.
The book starts by helping you create the right workspace for concept art, illustration, and comics. You’ll create a brush, set up a canvas, and develop an auto-auction. Along with covering how to work with CS Modeler that comes bundled with CSP, this book shows you how to import and rig characters easily. You’ll then create reusable changeable scenes and a 3D human character in Blender before exploring concept art, illustrations, comics, and how to create your own portfolio. The book features a glossary with brief explanations of all the main CSP functions. The focus of the book is not on drawing or painting but on helping you enhance your artistic skills using Clip Studio Paint to create an impressive portfolio.
By the end of this book, you’ll be able to use the impressive capabilities of CSP to create beautiful digital art in a productive way.

Leseprobe

Clip Studio Paint by Example

Understand how to use CSP in a faster and more productive way for concept art, illustrations, and comics

Ludovico Serra

BIRMINGHAM—MUMBAI

Clip Studio Paint by Example

Copyright © 2021 Packt Publishing

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embedded in critical articles or reviews.

Every effort has been made in the preparation of this book to ensure the accuracy of the information presented. However, the information contained in this book is sold without warranty, either express or implied. Neither the author, nor Packt Publishing or its dealers and distributors, will be held liable for any damages caused or alleged to have been caused directly or indirectly by this book.

Packt Publishing has endeavored to provide trademark information about all of the companies and products mentioned in this book by the appropriate use of capitals. However, Packt Publishing cannot guarantee the accuracy of this information.

Associate Group Product Manager: Pavan Ramchandani

Publishing Product Manager: Aaron Tanna

Senior Editor: Sofi Rogers

Content Development Editor: Rakhi Patel

Technical Editor: Shubham Sharma

Copy Editor: Safis Editing

Language Support Editor: Sofi Rogers

Project Coordinator: Manthan Patel

Proofreader: Safis Editing

Indexer: Vinayak Purushotham

Production Designer: Shankar Kalbhor

First published: June 2021

Production reference: 1280621

Published by Packt Publishing Ltd.

Livery Place

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B3 2PB, UK.

ISBN 978-1-80020-272-6

www.packt.com

This book is dedicated to the community of Clip Studio Paint that helped me when I started learning about this software in 2013. Without them, this book would not exist.

- Ludovico Serra / Lennybunny

Contributors

About the author

Ludovico Serra, whose pen name is Lennybunny, has a bachelor's degree in painting and a master's degree in illustration from the Academy of Fine Arts of Rome. He has twice won the MVP award in Clip Studio Ask and is also a Clip Studio Paint Evangelist.

About the reviewer

Elizabeth Staley is a visual artist and blogger who loves horses, animation, comics, and true crime. She began her digital art journey using Adobe Photoshop, but in recent years, has started using Clip Studio Paint. She is the author of Mastering Manga Studio 5, Manga Studio EX5 Cookbook, and Learn Clip Studio Paint. When she isn't creating art, she can be found at the barn with her horse. She currently lives in Pennsylvania, USA, with her husband.

Table of Contents

Preface

Chapter 1: Up and Running with CSP

Comparative anatomy – an introduction to CSP

The Photoshop interface

Brushes in Photoshop

The Krita interface

Brushes in Krita

The CSP interface

Setting up your workspace and mapping your shortcuts

Desk and chair

Shortcuts

Laptop + pen tablet

Two-in-one tablet

Pen display + PC

General CSP functions

Quick Access

Black and white pixels

Trying it yourself

Material palette – adding a material versus drawing an object

Summary

Chapter 2: Adding Brushes to CSP

Creating a brush

Decoration and texture brushes

Workhorse brush

Showing and hiding options

Try it yourself

Brush shape

Summary

Chapter 3: Creating 3D Backgrounds in CSP

Working with 3D in CSP – pros and cons

How to create a 3D mesh

Blender interface

Adding 3D props to your CSP

Summary

Chapter 4: Using Your 3D Props to Create a Scene

Technical requirements

Introduction to Clip Studio Assets

Creating a 3D real-life scene for your work

How to create a drawer

Editing an object in Modeler

Animating our object

Creating a 3D fantasy scene for your work

Summary

Chapter 5: Implementing 3D Characters in CSP

Technical requirements

Creating a sculpting base

Different methods

Adding references

Creating the base

Body

Hands

Legs

Joining all the pieces together

Head

Sculpting the mesh

Face

Hair

Clothing

Retopoing the mesh

Adding the details

Summary

Chapter 6: Importing 3D Characters in CSP

Preparing the mesh to be imported in Modeler

UV unwrapping

Rigging the character

Importing the character in to Modeler

Exporting the object

Importing the character in Modeler

Texturing the body

Texturing the face

Summary

Chapter 7: Making Your Own Illustration

Getting started with your illustration

Setting up the workspace

Coming up with an idea

Creating a cartoon illustration

Inking

Flatting

Coloring

Creating a painterly illustration

Creating a paintbrush

Grayscale, or grisaille for the cultured

Color mapping

Final colors

Summary

Chapter 8: Creating Your Own Comic

Introduction to comics

Setting up your workspace

Creating a story and a storyboard

General writing advice

Creating a new comic

How to use the story editor

Creating frames

Drawing the storyboard

Finishing a page

Group work

Team work

Layer structure

Automatic colors for your character

How balloons work

Exporting for printing

Summary

Chapter 9: Building Your Own Concept Art

Concept art introduction

Setting up the workspace

Material folder – your greatest ally

Making concept art for props

Creating concept art of your environment

Creating character concept art

Summary

Chapter 10: Creating Your Own Portfolio

Portfolio creation and introduction

Talking about your work

Building an illustration portfolio

Creating your comic portfolio

Making your concept art portfolio

Summary

Chapter 11: CSP Vocabulary

Menu options

File

Edit

Story

Layer

Select

View

Filter

Window

Help

Tool options

Tool list

Sub tool details

Summary

Why subscribe?

Other Books You May Enjoy

Preface

Clip Studio Paint (CSP) is powerful art software that can help you create artwork with its in-built material organizer, 3D integration, and group work features. It also provides other features that can speed up the workflow of illustrators, concept artists, and comic artists. Clip Studio Paint by Example covers tools and workflows relating to concept art, illustrations, and comics in detail. You'll learn everything from creating a brush and setting up a canvas to using the powerful tools and techniques you need to create a professional art portfolio.

Who this book is for

This Clip Studio Paint book goes beyond the technical stuff that helps beginner-level as well as intermediate artists who are new to working in a digital environment and need a more streamlined and seamless workflow relating to illustrations, concept art, and comics in Clip Studio Paint. No prior knowledge of Clip Studio Paint is required to get started with this book.

What this book covers

Chapter 1, Up and Running with CSP, provides a brief introduction to CSP with its pros and cons, analyzing the software in relation to others on the market and teaching you some common stuff, such as creating a brush, setting up a canvas, and creating an auto-action. Plus, you will find a small glossary of the functions relating to illustration, concept art, and comics that you can use to find a topic easily.

Chapter 2, Adding Brushes to CSP, talks about how to create brushes in CSP, how the brush engine works, and how to create a basic multipurpose brush and a seamless random texture brush.

Chapter 3, Creating 3D Backgrounds in CSP, talks about how to use 3D in CSP. With the addition of Clip Studio Modeler (CSM) bundled with the purchase of CSP, it is essential to talk about it, because with this you can import and rig characters easily (less easy is creating a character from scratch) and create reusable and editable scenes and props with just one click.

Chapter 4, Using Your 3D Props to Create a Scene, talks about how you can use previously created 3D props to create reusable changeable scenes.

Chapter 5, Implementing 3D Characters in CSP, explains how to create a 3D human character in Blender. This chapter will give you some basic skills on modeling, retopo, and UV mapping for creating 3D human models in Blender. Bear in mind that this isn't a guide to make a game-development-standard 3D model but a guide in which we will use those basic concepts to create 3D assets to use in CSP.

Chapter 6, Importing 3D Characters in CSP, explains how to import a character in CSM. This chapter will give you some basic knowledge on texturing human characters and rigging skills. Plus, you will get a pretty advanced understanding of how to use CSM to create posable characters to use in CSP.

Chapter 7, Making Your Own Illustration, teaches you about illustrations and how to set up your workspace and use the CSP tools to make cartoon and realistic illustrations with some tricks that will speed you up. Plus, we will look at creating brushes that you can use as workhorses to give you a realistic feeling.

Chapter 8, Creating Your Own Comic, shows how to set up your workspace, creating brushes fitted for the job and using the tools of CSP to go through the phases of creating a comic, from storyboarding, using the story editor and material folder, to the printing phase, using CSP and other software.

Chapter 9, Building Your Own Concept Art, shows how to integrate the 3D functions in CSP, materials, auto-actions, and everything at your disposal to speed up your concept art. We will see how to create props (from tile sets and weapons to a small house/cabin), an environment (a basic natural environment, a city environment, and a fantasy environment), and character concept art (sci-fi, fantasy, and normal).

Chapter 10, Creating Your Own Portfolio, presents a practical use of your skills. We will create together three portfolios for each of the sections (illustration, comics, and concept art). I will explain how you will need to construct them based on the subject and where to publish your artwork and portfolio.

Chapter 11, CSP Vocabulary, provides a glossary with a brief explanation of all the main CSP functions with a reference to the page on which it is talked about extensively in the book.

To get the most out of this book

You will need the most recent CSP version; as of the time of writing, this is the May 2021 update. To best experience this book, it's preferable that you use the EX version of CSP. The chapters related to Blender were done with Blender version 2.90.

This book doesn't require any prerequisite knowledge; it was made with beginners in mind. So, sit down, relax, and enjoy reading.

Download the color images

We also provide a PDF file that has color images of the screenshots/diagrams used in this book. You can download it here: https://static.packt-cdn.com/downloads/9781800202726_ColorImages.pdf.

Conventions used

There are a number of text conventions used throughout this book.

Code in text: Indicates code words in text, database table names, folder names, filenames, file extensions, pathnames, dummy URLs, user input, and Twitter handles. Here is an example: "Now we just need to create a layer folder called storyboard inside every frame folder."

Bold: Indicates a new term, an important word, or words that you see onscreen. For example, words in menus or dialog boxes appear in the text like this. Here is an example: "To activate it, you just need to open a page and go to View | On-screen area (webtoon)."

Tips or important notes

Appear like this.

Get in touch

Feedback from our readers is always welcome.

General feedback: If you have questions about any aspect of this book, mention the book title in the subject of your message and email us at [email protected].

Errata: Although we have taken every care to ensure the accuracy of our content, mistakes do happen. If you have found a mistake in this book, we would be grateful if you would report this to us. Please visit www.packtpub.com/support/errata, selecting your book, clicking on the Errata Submission Form link, and entering the details.

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Chapter 1: Up and Running with CSP

Hi, I'm Ludovico Serra (otherwise known as Lennybunny), Clip Studio Evangelist and two-time winner of the MVP award. Please note that this will not be a classic manual in which I explain all the functions of Clip Studio Paint (CSP) or how to do all of the technical stuff, such as creating a canvas or creating a simple brush (we will create brushes, but it will be a little bit different than the classic "add a texture to this brush"). If you need information about the technical stuff, there are other books you should read, such as Learn Clip Studio Paint Third Edition by Inko Ai Takita (At the time of writing, this book wasn't published. It will be published in August 2021), and Clip Studio Tips by Liz Staley.

This book will be more of a workflow example, in which I will show you how to use CSP in a faster and more advanced way, even if you are a beginner with the software. Also, this book will be completely and utterly based on my own experience with digital software and my own artistic view, so feel free to adapt everything I tell you to your experience and needs. In addition, this first chapter is for an absolute beginner or someone who is coming from other software, just so that I know for sure that we are on the same page regarding basic knowledge. So, if you're not an absolute beginner, go to Chapter 2, Adding Brushes to CSP, where you will find the fun stuff!

I will cover the basic functions of CSP later in the General CSP functions section, but for now, I will concentrate on some fundamentals.

This chapter will cover the following topics:

Comparative anatomy – an introduction to CSP

Setting up your workspace and mapping your shortcuts

General CSP functions

Comparative anatomy – an introduction to CSP

In my experience, with Clip Studio Ask, you can encounter a lot of early frustration if you are coming from other software and try to apply your previous habits to CSP. One of the first frustrations is opening the software and expecting everything to be ready from the get-go. CSP is not like this, for good reason, but let's compare CSP with two other programs: Photoshop (2020) and Krita (4.2.9). I will compare it with a vanilla opening, so it means I will not modify anything after a clean installation.

The Photoshop interface

Photoshop doesn't really require that much of an introduction; it started as photo-manipulation software and, thanks to its versatility, you can now use it for drawing. There are a ton of tutorials on how to use it. Let's see the vanilla interface:

Figure 1.1 – Adobe Photoshop interface

Looking at the vanilla interface, we can see something rather intriguing, which is that the windows are more oriented for photo editing. On the right side, we have a series of panels dedicated to colors, then under those, there is a panel dedicated to the canvas and adjustment, and under that, we have layers, channels, and paths. Let's say we have the intelligence of a goldfish and so we can't immediately find the various brushes or brush options in a dedicated window. If we go to the toolbar, these are the tools we will find:

Figure 1.2 – Photoshop toolbar

This lets us know that this is undoubtedly a piece of software for photo editing, as we have six tools for selection and five tools not directly related to drawing (such as the clone stamp tool), and only six tools directly related to drawing.

If we right-click on the various tools, we can select other tools; let's call them Sub Tools.

Now let's focus on something more important—how the brushes are organized.

Brushes in Photoshop

Now let's assume that we have a greater degree of intelligence, we recognize the brush icon at the top (), and we unlock the brushes. We will then see this:

Figure 1.3 – Brush window in Photoshop

We have brushes subdivided into folders, but here's something interesting—we have a list of the latest used brushes with the last size used.

Now let's talk about how the brushes work in relation to the environment:

We can't add a shortcut to a single brush.

We can't add a shortcut to a single brush folder.

We can only add a shortcut that lets us go to the various tools in the toolbar. So, this means we can only add a shortcut to the

Brush tool

or

Mixer brush tool

.

We can add a shortcut to scroll between the next and the previous brush.

This brush list can't contain erasers or other tools.

If we needed to organize our brushes, we would need to put everything in Brush tool, and after that, we would need to organize the brushes using folders. Every time we need a brush, we need to scroll to find the folder we need to get our desired brush.

Now let's see how Krita presents its interface.

The Krita interface

We have something that at first seems pretty crowded, but in reality, it's pretty straightforward:

Figure 1.4 – Krita interface

On the right, we have color selection, tool options, and an overview/navigator section, and below that, we have layers and channels. Lastly, we have Brush Presets and Brush presets History. If we go and look at the toolbar, we will see those tools.

We have six groups of tools and six single tools:

Figure 1.5 – Krita toolbar

We can see that out of 31 tools, only 2 tools are related to photo editing and all the rest are related to drawing with vectors (layers based on math functions) or rasters (layers based on pixel graphics). We can deduce that this software was always intended for illustration and drawing.

Now let's look at Brush presets and see how the brushes work in the Krita environment.

Brushes in Krita

The following screenshot shows the brush options within Krita:

Figure 1.6 – Brushes in Krita

We can find a lot of interesting things:

We can start by seeing that we don't have a distinction between brushes and erasers; we don't even have an eraser tool in the toolbar.

Another point of interest is that the brushes are called brush presets, and you can toggle between these presets. So, you can create different presets based on what you need.

We can add shortcuts to certain brush presets, giving us the ability to toggle between them.

We can't add a shortcut to a single brush, at least not in the vanilla version.

We can't put the shape tool or any selection tools in the brush presets.

Every time we need a brush, we will need to select a preset, via clicking or using a shortcut, and select the brush.

Now we have seen how two of the main pieces of software in this domain work in their native vanilla environments. We have seen how the workspace changes between photo editing software and pure illustration software. Now it's time for us to finally look at the environment of CSP and see how that works.

The CSP interface

When looking at CSP for the first time, it can seem a little bit intimidating, but there is a reason for this. Do you remember that Photoshop was created with a single target in mind? It is the same thing with Krita. In CSP, we have three target audiences—illustrators, comic artists, and animators. Consequently, CELSYS, the people who created CSP, don't know which one of those you are, so they give you all the windows that you would need for all of those jobs. Your first task is to remove everything you don't need:

Figure 1.7 – CSP interface

Let's break down what options we have in the interface:

Left column

:

a) Sub Tool

b) Tool property

c) Brush Size

d) Color Wheel, Color Slider, Color Set, Intermediate Color, Approximate Color, Color History

Right column

:

Quick Access

,

Material palette:

a) Navigator, Sub View, Item Bank, Information

b) Layer Property, Search Layers, Animation Cels

c) Layer, History, Auto Action

We have an astonishing number of windows—22 when you count the toolbar! We have triple the amount of information compared with what the other software we looked at offers, but we need to remember that this is a software that was designed to be used by three kinds of professionals. We will later learn how to be tidy and keep it all organized.

Now let's talk about the toolbar. In my view, the toolbar is the most misunderstood part of CSP.

This is because it works in a very different way to other toolbars in similar software:

Figure 1.8 – CSP toolbar

Right now, there isn't anything strange; it is more or less like what we have seen before.

We can see immediately that there aren't any advanced selection tools visible, and this means this isn't photo manipulation or correction software. I can tell you from experience that doing something such as photobashing (which we will cover in Chapter 7, Making Your Own Illustration) will land you in a world of pain and frustration.

Important Note

Doing concept art in CSP in a photobashing way is doable, but there are some caveats—and not just in terms of photo manipulation, as we will see.

In CSP, the Tools that you select in your tool palette are like big folders. This is what the Tool palette looks like:

Figure 1.9 – Tool palette

After you select a tool, you open a Sub Tool group that will show in the Sub Tool palette:

Figure 1.10 – Pen tool selected and the Pen Sub Tool group opened in the Sub Tool palette

Inside the Sub Tool group, you select a Sub Tool. This means that even if two tools are two different conceptual types, such as a Text tool and an Object tool, you can still group them together:

Figure 1.11 – Example of a personalized Sub Tool group

So, everything I usually need is in my personalized group, meaning, I don't need to change Sub Tools in the Tool palette. I have all I need at the tip of my fingertips, because as you will see in the next section, I can switch Sub Tool groups using a shortcut.

If you want to group something, just go to the Sub Tool window, click and drag the tool in the toolbar, and you will create a new Sub Tool group. Inside a group, you will find your tools.

CSP labels your tools in this way.

It means that when you select Brush tool, you don't change Brush Tips, like in Photoshop, but you completely change the tool.

Let's sum up the characteristics of tools in CSP:

There is no major distinction between tools.

You can add a shortcut for a precise

Sub Tool

group and that will let you return to the last group and

Sub Tool

you used.

You can add a shortcut to one or multiple tools, giving you the ability to cycle between tools.

All "brush" tools are interchangeable; you just need to change some options in

Brush settings

. I will explain which options are most useful in dedicated chapters later: you will find illustration brushes covered in

Chapter 6

,

Importing 3D Characters in CSP

, comic brushes in

Chapter 7

,

Making Your Own Illustration

, and concept art brushes in

Chapter 8

, Creating Your Own Comic

.

As you can see, you can organize everything however you want, meaning you can create a single Sub Tool group with everything you need, and you can put the toolbar away and never let it see the light of day again.

It also means that you can completely discard everything you don't need, creating a laser-focused environment. Regarding this, there is some general advice that I can give you, and we'll explore this in the next section.

Setting up your workspace and mapping your shortcuts

My bachelor's degree was in painting, and I don't know why, but I often painted on a 2x1 m canvas. This gave me a muscle constriction in my shoulder nerves. Because of this, I learned the hard way that I needed to watch the ergonomics of my workspace. From the beginning of my digital career, I've used a tablet, a pen tablet, and a display tablet, and I've changed my workspace a lot. This will be the chapter in which I will share my thoughts with you on how to create a more enjoyable (and painless) environment.

Desk and chair

The first thing you need to consider is having a good chair, as you will probably sit in that chair for 2-3 hours at a time. You need to be comfortable, and having a bad chair can ruin you in the long run. If you have a chair that can't give you the right height, it will cause you a lot of problems with your back. Plus, a chair costs less than a desk usually, so it's the easier thing to buy, even if you're on a budget. Generally, you want something that lets you have your elbow at about 90° while you draw:

Figure 1.12 – On the left, we have a desk that is too low; this will give you neck pain. On the right, we have the opposite; this will give you elbow and neck pain

If your desk is too low, you can resolve this by stacking books to create the right height. Or, if you want something more refined, you could use some wood planks—screw them together and the job is done. For a desk that is too high, you just need a keyboard tray to put your pen tablet in. For the pen display user, you can use a vesa mount or a tablet holder.

Shortcuts

Shortcuts are important to cover, because we are not limited like we are in Photoshop, where Ctrl + [key] is the only option. We can use whatever key we want in whatever combination we want, with Ctrl/Alt/Shift + [key]. Just as an example, my Undo shortcut is Ctrl + F12 and my Redo is F12. One exception is Sub Tool, for which you can only have a single-key shortcut without modifiers.

Tip

To add a shortcut, go to File |Shortcuts settings. You will have five options:

Main Menu, Pop-up palettes, Options, Tool, Auto Action

We will explore shortcuts more in the upcoming sections, but before we do, we need to prioritize our shortcuts.

High priority:

Switch main color and sub color

Switch main color and transparent color

Undo/redo

Shortcut to your personal

Sub Tool

group

Low priority:

Create new layer.

Vector eraser: This eraser will work as a normal eraser in a non-vector layer, so it's better to have this shortcut than the normal eraser.

A shortcut for your favorite selection tool.

Increase/decrease brush size, for when you need to fine-tune the brush size.

Those are my recommended essential shortcuts. Now, if I listen carefully, I can hear you saying: "You know nothing! You haven't listed a zoom-in/zoom-out shortcut! What about the rotate tool? This book is garbage!" Hold your horses. There is a reason for this. A lot of those actions can be performed using modifiers in CSP.

Modifier shortcuts

The modifiers are Ctrl, Shift, Alt, and Spacebar, and they can be used in combination with each other. They let you temporarily select some tools:

Ctrl/Cmd

selects the

Object

tool.

Shift

creates a straight line. You create it by selecting the first point of the line, and after that, you select the end point of the line.

Alt/Opt

selects the

Color Picker

tool.

Spacebar

selects the

Hand

tool.

Ctrl/Cmd

+

Shift

enables the

Layer selection

tool.

Shift

+

Spacebar

rotates the canvas.

Ctrl/Cmd

+

Spacebar

is how you use the zoom-in/out tool. You need to click and scroll horizontally to make it work flawlessly.

I really recommend that you train yourself to use the Alt modifier for the Color Picker tool rather than the button on your pen.

Now, if I listen carefully, I can hear the sound of silence saying that I am right.

Those are the shortcuts to use in order to have the bare-minimum workspace. If you want to add more shortcuts, feel free to do so, but the ones I recommended should be the first ones you map. Remember that the same key can give different results if you bind it with different modifiers.

Now let's talk about the various workspace scenarios in which you may find yourself.

Important Note

I will refer to all tech using generic terms, meaning that when I say "desktop computer," this means both PC and Mac, and so on.

Laptop + pen tablet

In this combo, you will have a device with an integrated keyboard, meaning that you will need to factor in the fact that all your shortcuts will be in front of the monitor:

Figure 1.13 – Laptop + pen tablet

I recommend, if possible, putting your tablet to the right or left of the laptop, because if you put everything in a straight line, you will be prone to hunching over and creating problems with your back.

Figure 1.14 – Example of hand position on the keyboard

My general advice is to keep your non-dominant hand on the keyboard, such that you can rest your thumb on the spacebar. In this way, you can press the modifiers with your thumb while easily reaching the other keys.

This is an example of how I do things on a QWERTY ITA keyboard:

Figure 1.15 – Shortcut example for a right-handed user on a laptop keyboard

Q and W are purposely kept empty, and in the next chapter, we will explain why.

I would recommend going to the options of your pen in your graphic tablet settings and linking the button to Pan/Zoom. With this option, if you click the button without pressing the pen on the tablet, you can pan through the canvas, and if you press the pen on the tablet, you can zoom. In addition, if you press Shift while clicking the button on the pen, you can rotate the canvas.

Some pen tablets have shortcut buttons, and I recommend linking those buttons to shortcuts such as Ctrl + T (for Transform, say) for the shortcuts that require modifier + key. In this way, you can leave the tablet on the side and retain the ergonomics of your posture, because you don't need two hands to press those keys.

Two-in-one tablet

These are the worst to draw on if you think about the ergonomics, because usually you cannot comfortably access the keyboard and, unless you have something like the third option in the following figure, you don't even have a built-in stand to enable you to use the shortcuts:

Figure 1.16 – Example of a two-in-one tablet

In this case, I really recommend buying a tablet holder that lets you have the monitor however you want so you have a more comfortable drawing angle, and also a one-hand keyboard, possibly with programmable keys. Regarding one-hand keyboards, the official solution is the Clip Studio Tabmate, but a less official and much cheaper option is to buy a Bluetooth numpad and remap the keys using third-party software. I recommend searching for a tutorial online because it can be pretty convoluted if you're not tech-savvy.

Another trick is to use the QuickAccess palette and put your most-used tools, options, or windows in there. For example, keep ColorWheel to the side of your non-dominant hand so you can click on the icons using your thumb. I recommend putting ColorWheel, ToolOptions, and Layer in the QuickAccess window. In this way, you can do all the operations you need with the thumb of your non-dominant hand:

Figure 1.17 – My Quick Access window; the window menu shortcuts are the lime green icons

In this way, every time I click this icon with my thumb, CSP will open the window I need under the pen.

Pen display + PC

This configuration is the best for good ergonomics, even when you use a pen tablet + PC:

Figure 1.18 – PC and a pen display

My advice when using a pen display is to buy a vesa mount or tablet holder, based on the size of your display, so you can have the monitor where you find it most comfortable, giving you the option to work while standing and not hunching over.

Regarding shortcuts, I recommend this kind of setup:

Figure 1.19 – Put your keyboard to the side of your non-dominant hand and have your hand in such a way that you can access Ctrl, Shift, and other modifiers

Find a position in which you can rest your hand comfortably on the keyboard and map the keys based on the laptop + pen tablet combo.

A good way to have a less-crowded shortcut environment is mapping one of the two buttons of your pen to Pan/Zoom, because it means you can easily rest your hand on the keyboard without having to move it away. If you don't do this, you will probably have to keep moving your hand away from the keyboard to the side buttons on your tablet. It is better to link the side buttons to something that doesn't require your dominant hand to move, such as the New correction layer.

If you have a Wacom tablet, I recommend that you link the second button to a radial menu and add options such as Transform and On/Off ruler to it, or whatever you find comfortable. This is a way to replace the missing lateral buttons on Wacom's new Cintiq line.

Here are the shortcuts I might use with my left hand on a Windows QWERTY ITA keyboard:

Figure 1.20 – Shortcut example for right-handed users for PC

Now we have set everything up, you are ready to create your next masterpiece, without sacrificing your back!

But wait, there's more! The next section contains some general advice regarding CSP that will help you create a more enjoyable workflow and workspace while drawing.

General CSP functions

In this section, we will learn how to have a clean interface and how to use Quick Access to have all the information you need. Plus, I will teach you how to use auto-actions to do away with the most tedious tasks, such as changing the color of your line. We will finish with learning how the Color, Grayscale, and Monochrome color modes in the layer properties can be used to your advantage and how to use the Material palette.

We haven't touched on one very important issue—creating a clean workspace.

A workspace refers to how windows are arranged, how you've set up your shortcuts, the unit of measurement used, and your command bar settings:

Tip

To change from dark mode to light mode, just go to File | Preferences | Interface.

Figure 1.21 – The command bar is practically a fixed quick access area that is at the top of the workspace

Before modifying anything, it's best to save the workspace:

Figure 1.22 – Menu bar

Go to Window | Workspace | Register Workspace. Let's be a little bit narcissistic and name it after ourselves. In my case, I'll name it Lennybunny workspace. Now let's do some cleaning:

Figure 1.23 – CSP's basic interface

This is the basic interface. To remove something, you have two options—either clicking and dragging the window and pressing the X in the top right of the window, or going to Window and selecting/deselecting what you don't need. If you remove something in error, you need to come here to undo your mistake:

Figure 1.24 – My personal workspace

This is my personal workspace, and I will use it to explain a little bit of how CSP handles things. I've got the Material palette on the left for the quick click and drag of textures… or 3D materials… or whatever else. On the right, I've got all the options I need to work nested together. I don't need to have all the information at my disposal; I only need the information I need to change in a given moment. When I draw, I collapse everything and I just concentrate on the work I'm doing. If I need something, I click on the little icon and this will open my menu, or I use a shortcut to call that menu under my pen. In this way, I have a very clean interface.

The first most important thing to remember is that CSP lets you nest your windows:

Figure 1.25 – Nested windows in CSP

The first way to collapse windows is by using the two arrows, . If you press the single arrow, you will collapse the window into a small icon (the one on the right in the preceding figure), but if you press the double arrow, you collapse the entire window. To get it back, just click again on the double arrow. The first type of nesting is group window nesting. Note that there is a gray line between some of the icons—that gray line means that those are different window groups. The second type of nesting is between windows. In the example, Intermediate Color (the one with the grayed-out icon) is nested inside Color Wheel. If I click on the grayed-out icon, I will switch to that window.

A third way to organize windows is to display them as popups. This means that windows will open individually. This can be useful if you have a small monitor, such as with a 13" two-in-one tablet, and you can't have much information within a single space.

You can use this window nesting to organize your information into a less-crowded interface, because you can put all the information on one side and select only the information you need to change. For example, when I do an illustration and I want to concentrate on painting, I don't need to know which layer I am in all the time. I can't change layer unless I use the Select layer tool anyway. Instead, I just need Color Wheel and Color Set open as I am only using those two windows.

Tip

Another great trick to organize your workspace is linking your window to shortcuts. To do so, go to File | Shortcut settings | Category: Pop-up Palettes. In this way, every time you click on a shortcut, it will bring your pen over to the window. For example, I have the 9 key as a shortcut for Sub Tool group and Ctrl + 9 for Tool property, so every time I need to change tool or change one of the options, I don't need to change the window I'm seeing and using.

Quick Access

If we look on the left, we have the Quick Access window, and this is one of the most underused windows for new users. It is useful because it is a fast way to get your most-used tools and options without creating shortcuts for everything.

To modify the Quick Access window, you need to press this icon:

Figure 1.26 – Icon for modifying the Quick Access window

In the top left of the window, you can click on Quick Access.

This is especially useful for tablet users, because you can add the windows you need as pop-up windows. For example, if you need Color set, just click on the icon in Quick Access and it will appear under your pen. Then, you select what you need, and after clicking somewhere else, it will disappear.

But having your favorite tools in one clickable place is not the best feature of the Quick Access window. In the Quick Access window, you can add layer options, create new correction layers, add filters, change file options or current drawing colors, and do basically anything else you can think of.

A neat little trick is that you can even add Tool in the toolbar. When you select the icon, it will go to the last used Sub Tool in that tool group. This can be used to switch between different types of brushes without crowding a tool group too much.

For example, I have these in the top section of my Quick Access window:

Figure 1.27 – Icons in my Quick Access window

These two icons let me toggle between my main brushes and my decoration brushes.

On the left, I have all my drawing/painting Sub Tools, and on the right, I have my decorations tool group, subdivided into various Sub Tool groups based on the decorations. Using this in tandem with my shortcut for the Sub Tool group, I can keep everything organized and within reach.

Auto Action

One last thing that we can add to Quick Access is Auto Action:

Figure 1.28 – Auto Action window

This is a recording of actions that will be done automatically once you click that little play button to the right of the bright red button. The difference between this bright red button and the bright red button often used as an apocalypse device in a spy movie is that when we press this button, it will start to record our actions.

For example, the selected auto action changes the color of my lineart (or whatever there is in the layer) using my selected color.

To recreate this auto action, you need to click on the button to the right of the play button, and this will create a new auto action. Name it Change color. After this, click on the big bright red button to make the sequence:

Figure 1.29 – This big bright red button

If you want to change only the color without changing the values of what you have, do this:

Go to

Layer | New Layer | New Raster Layer

, or you can just press in the layer window.

Go to

Layer | Layer settings | Clip to layer below

, or you can just press in the layer window.

Change

Blending mode

(which will look like this: ) for the layer from

Normal

to

Color

.

Go to

Edit | Fill

.

Go to

Layer | Merge with layer below

.

If you want to change everything from color to values, do this:

Go to

Layer | Layer settings | Lock transparent pixel

, or click in the layer window.

Go to

Edit | Fill

.

Important Note

We have seen the Lock pixel and Clip to layer below options, but what do they do exactly?

Lock pixel literally locks the pixel, meaning that you can't draw outside of what you've already drawn; however, you can still erase.

Clip to layer below means that you can only draw where there is something in the layer below.

Black and white pixels

We have talked about Layer Property, but there are three other really useful things to look at:

Figure 1.30 – Window with the layer properties

The first thing we need to notice is Expression color, where we can choose between Color, Gray, and Monochrome.

The color mode is easy to understand: it's the standard mode that will show you the image in colors. Gray and Monochrome transform an image into a grayscale or bitmap image, respectively:

Figure 1.31 – Color modes

This means that if you need to see your image in grayscale or you need to create a bitmap image, you can do so with just one click and in a non-destructive way, because unless you click on Apply expression color of preview, you can always revert your changes.

The second thing to note (and I don't know who thought of it but I want to marry him/her) is an absolute lifesaver:

Figure 1.32 – Expression color interface in Gray mode

If we look to the right of Gray in the preceding figure, we can see a black box and a white box. If we click on the black box, only the black pixels will be visible:

Figure 1.33 – Gray mode with only black pixels selected

We have put the orange base used for the sphere, under the Gray expression color. As you can see, we now have the darkest values applied to the sphere underneath the grayscale in a non-destructive way.

But what if we want a colored shadow and not that muddy brown? If we change the color as we did before, we can apply the grayscale and permanently change the expression color.

Now we arrive at the third useful feature inside Layer Property—the Layer color effect:

Figure 1.34 – Layer effect panel

If we click on the button highlighted with a red square, CSP will convert all black and white pixels to two colors of our choice:

Figure 1.35 – The result of using the Layer color effect

Layer color controls the black pixels and Sub color controls the white pixels. This gives us complete freedom as to our basic values because it means that we can change the color of our values whenever we want.

Trying it yourself

Organizing the values:

Try to create an auto-action in which you convert your subject to grayscale and divide your dark values from your white values, all while maintaining your original subject.

Material palette – adding a material versus drawing an object

Now that we have talked about the layer properties, we need to talk about how to transform CSP from simple drawing software to a little war machine that will become better and better the more you use it. The Material palette is a way to store images/folders/textures/brush tips/whatever else you want inside CSP:

Figure 1.36 – Material palette

This is integrated offline, which means that you can access it even if you don't have internet, and it is a good way to organize textures, brush tips, and entire folders with subfolders and tags.

To add something to the Material palette, go to Edit. In the options in the following screenshot, there is Register Material; click on that and select Image:

Figure 1.37 – The Material property window—every time you register a material, this will appear

You decide which folder you want to save to, add some tags, press OK, and you have your custom material.

Here is an example of why this is the best feature you will encounter using this software. Say I've bought some cut-out PNGs of some clouds, trees, and environments. I can add them to my material folder so that every time I need those PNGs, I don't need to import them in a folder into my PC; I just open the Material property window, click and drag, and I have the image pasted on my layer.

And if this isn't enough, CELSYS gives you 10 GB of free online backup storage, meaning that you can back up your materials online and download them on any PC you want. Therefore, even if your PC dies, you will not lose anything, and if you change your PC, you can download everything.

If you need to do an online backup of your materials, follow these steps. To use this feature, you need to open CSP and click on the blue cloud icon:

Figure 1.38 – Blue cloud icon in CSP

After this, you just need to click on Cloud Settings and select the option you prefer.

If you need to back up your work, you just need to click on Manage works, on the left:

Figure 1.39 – The Manage works icon

Now you just need to press this little button for every piece of work you want to back up:

Figure 1.40 – The Manage works cloud icon

The problem with materials is that you need time to make them, and sometimes you can spend more time on making a material than on creating a piece.

My advice to evade the problem is simple:

"Don't put anything in your materials that needs to be in perspective."

For example, it is useless to draw a chair and put it in my materials, because what if I need a different perspective? Or the chair I saved is not good enough for my illustration? I would spend more time creating a chair for every occasion than I would by just drawing one every time.

However, what about the decoration used on a chair? In that case, it is useful to save materials, because you would use a decoration even if it wasn't for a chair, and this will save you time in the long run.

But there is a little bit of an exception to this rule, and that is 3D objects. CSP lets you open 3D objects, save them in your materials, and reuse them whenever you want. We will see how to create them in Chapter 3, Creating 3D Backgrounds in CSP.

Your Material palette is also where everything you download from Clip Studio Assets will be kept, under Material [Download]. Thanks to the new update, you can directly download your brushes from this service using a convenient button in your Sub Tool group palette. We will take a look at this in the next section.

Adding a brush from Clip Studio Assets

Thanks to the May 2021 update, you can now directly add things from Clip Studio Assets, a free service from which you can download brushes, textures, materials, and more.

To do so, you just need to go to your Sub Tool group palette and go to the bottom. You will find a button called Add sub tool:

Figure 1.41 – Add sub tool button location

This will prompt you to a window using which you can add your most recently downloaded brushes:

Figure 1.42 – The Add sub tool window

Here, under the Type section, you have three options:

Material not added to palette

: Here you will find every brush that you downloaded and never added to your

Sub Tool

palette.

Created material

: In here, you can find every brush that you have created and saved in your materials. Just click on a brush and click on

Register sub tool as material

.

Downloaded material

: In here, you can find all the brushes that you had at some point in your life, added to your

Sub tool

palette.

Let's say for the sake of this book that it's your first time opening CSP and you've never downloaded a brush. To start downloading something, follow these steps:

Click on the big button in the top-left corner named

Search for materials on ASSETS

. This will open Clip Studio Assets.

Now, just click on a brush that you like.

In the top-right corner, you can find a bright red button named

Download

. Click on that and your brush will be downloaded.

This will add, without needing to close and reopen the Add sub tool window, the downloaded brush under the Material not added to palette type: