Essential Manga Clip Arts

Earlier, I went over the book 500 Manga Characters which sported quite a number of artwork for you to work with commercially or non-commercially. There is another book created by fairly the same people called Manga Clip Art, available for the same low, low price of $20 USD.

This book is a lot slimmer than the previously mentioned tome and overall, I think it’s a lot more versatile. Before I get into why it’s more versatile, let me go over what this book offers. First, there’s a good number of pages – 36 of them to be exact – dedicated to teaching how to use and manipulate the images, color them digitally in various CGing styles, and so on.

How to CG in a painterly style

Did I mention the whole book was in color? If it matters to you, the book is also hardcover and is about the size of a small picture book. The front of the book has a cutout showing the CD with all the images inside in a clear, circular, plastic sleeve. Pretty neat looking but I don’t know how it’ll fare during the long run with constant use.

Use and abuse manipulate the layers!

This book also has a list of artist contributors but unlike 500 Manga Characters, it doesn’t list which artist made what artwork which is very unfortunate in my opinion. It’ll become tough crediting the right artist without the proper information.

Kawaii desu ne? (Cute huh?)

The remainder of the book features the 20 types of characters you can make from aliens, teens/adults, monsters, mechas, chibis, and children. There are generally four pages dedicated to each type showing a sample of the characters you can make. One neat thing about that is they show which layers was used to make that particular character. A very handy detail if you like the combination shown and wish to ape it.

It’s not cute as Wall-E but at least it looks strong.

There are also four alternative sets that are drawn differently from the majority of the characters. Three of them are drawn quite nicely but the last set looks horrendous. It looks like a grade school student drew it. A very talented gradeschooler, I’d say, but in comparison to everything else in the book, it just doesn’t measure up. Of course, if you ever need unpolished artwork, this set can work for you!

I bet you can draw better than this right?

With that being said, there are some other extras: 6 backgrounds and 2 types of accessory sets. The backgrounds depict a city street, schoolyard, volcano, hangar, village, and a waterfront. The two accessory sets feature boys and girls accessories. Both are pretty neat additions giving you the ability to create a complete scene and change the characters looks some more.

They’re monsters, not furries!

One point about this book that may turn you off is that most of the characters presented look like they were in 500 Manga Characters. I haven’t gone through all images in both books to make sure but generally, I see details, faces, and clothes in Manga Clip Art that I’m pretty positive I saw in the aforementioned book.

Haven’t I seen you before?

A bright aspect of this book though is the versatility I mentioned earlier. This book actually has PSDs! With layers and everything! All the character types within this book have their own PSD file found within the accompanying CD. To use it, you basically will “turn on” or “turn off” the layer you want to see/use by pressing the eye icon in the layers window. It’s basically one big paper doll file! You can flip the layers, skew them, add another layer from the accessories file, put in a background – heck you can put multiple characters together if your computer can handle the big PSD files!

Is it just me or don’t you just want to squeeze these little guys?

One caveat is that you have to have a computer that can handle the PSD files. The lowest file size for a character type is 2.14 MB but the largest it around 15 MB. Opening these files on an old computer or one with low memory will take it’s toll.

There’s also a matter of having the correct program to open the files. There’s a free tryout of Photoshop Elements included within the CD but if you’re poor, you can use GIMP. I don’t know if it’s been corrected, but I’d like to point out that I’ve used GIMP before and saved a PSD file. I later reopened that PSD file and found that the multiple layers weren’t kept intact. So try it out before you save any major work using GIMP.

Someone has to be serious – these guys fit the bill!

Now, let’s get to the info you really want to know: can you use the artwork for commercial use? Why yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus! You can use the images for any commercial project you wish. The license is like 500 Manga Characters – can use on media, commercial use, cannot bundle in a set, cannot use materials for illegal purposes, and so on. If you want to reassure yourself, you can check out the Manga Clip Art license here.

Coloring techniques! Neat~!

For those who want to know all the details, here’s the contents of the book:
Introduction
On the Disc
-Digital Manga-
Introduction to Digital Art
Photoshop and Photoshop Elements
Photoshop Tools
Photoshop Brushes
Creating Characters
Blocking in Base Colors
Choosing Colors
Cel Shading
Highlights an Details
Airbrush Technique
Natural Media
-Characters-
Contemporary
Sci-fi
Traditional Asian
Warrior
Children
Chibi
Good Monsters
Evil Monsters
Mecha (Giant Robot)
-Alternative Styles-
Cute
Monsters and Aliens
-Backgrounds and Accessories-
Backgrounds
*Volcano
*Street Scene
*Village
*Hangar
*School
*Waterfront
Accessories
Contributors

Alternative style cute boy says “Bye!”