MangaStudio EX 4 Double Speech Bubble Tutorial

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DraconianRain's avatar
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Ok so I feel a bit silly for not remembering to make this since a lot of us use double speech bubbles. I use them a lot so here's a few ways to do it.

Create a new layer by clicking the layer icon. This is marked in a red square in the image below.
Snap 2013-08-16 at 09.24.47 by DraconianRain

After you click this, a dialogue box will appear with a lot of options. Select Vector Layer and leave the rest as defualts. Where to click and change to vector is marked in red in the image below.
Snap 2013-08-16 at 09.25.43 by DraconianRain

Go to the rectangle tool, click and hold and then drag out to see the other shape tools like in photoshop. This should stay up while the cursor is over it. Select the Circle/ellipse tool. This is shown where and how marked in red in the image below.
Snap 2013-08-16 at 09.28.48 by DraconianRain

Draw out two intersecting bubbles in the size you need. This may take quite a few tries to get it right. Just keep trying. You may need to adjust your line size. To do so you need the Tool Options window open. In Window go down and tick Tool Options to bring this window/tool up. There are two images to show this.
Snap 2013-08-16 at 09.34.22 by DraconianRain
Snap 2013-08-16 at 09.32.40 by DraconianRain

Now we're going to use the eraser. This is why I said to start as a vector drawing. The vector eraser has a special function where with one click, no matter the size of the eraser, it will erase entire lines if the they are intersecting. So that being said select the eraser tool. And then go to the Tool Options window. When there, select the eraser intersecting lines icon. This is marked in red in the image below.
Snap 2013-08-16 at 09.38.04 by DraconianRain

Now simply click the two lines in the middle of your bubble. And it will erase very cleanly. Like shown below. You don't have to erase along the area at all, just one click on the line and it will be gone.
Snap 2013-08-16 at 09.39.06 by DraconianRain

Snap 2013-08-16 at 09.39.22 by DraconianRain
Now Right click the vector layer and rasterize. It needs to be a raster image so we can make it into a balloon material to use over and over again. When you rasterize it asks you if you want to keep the original layer. I normally say yes incase I want to change it later, but you don't have to for this. Choose yes or no and it will be rasterized. This is show marked in red in the image below. After this it's up to you on whether or not you want a transparent bubble which is comeplete see through or white. If you want it solid white, colour it now with the bucket tool or when you make it a custom bubble, all your background will show up in your bubble.
Snap 2013-08-16 at 09.43.06 by DraconianRain
Now Select the speech bubble with the selection tool.
Snap 2013-08-16 at 09.45.03 by DraconianRain

Go to the Edit tab and go down to Save Patter to Dialogue Balloon Material. This will allow you to make your own custom speech bubble to use over and over again. If you want to make other custom speech bubbles in future, draw them on a raster layer or convert your vector to a raster, select it, and repeat this step and it will remain in your materials to use as many times as you need.
Snap 2013-08-16 at 09.45.54 by DraconianRain
This window will appear. For normal bubbles, leaving Auto check on should be fine, but for these big bubbles, untick it and adjust the text area size. Give it a name and a small description, then hit ok when you're happy.
Snap 2013-08-16 at 09.48.56 by DraconianRain

When your writing or you need to put a bubble on selected writing, you're properties panel is already open. There's a tab on this window. Called Dialogue Balloon. Click this tab. Go to Select Dialogue Balloon from Materials.
Snap 2013-08-16 at 09.53.28 by DraconianRain

It will open the speech bubble material panel. Your bubble will be at the bottom. Click it, and it will appear and be fully working like the other pre-made bubbles. Next time you need this bubble, you just simply have to go to your materials like in this last step and use it like any other premade bubble. It's a great time saver.
Snap 2013-08-16 at 09.54.27 by DraconianRain

The only other way to make double bubbles is to draw all of them by hand but I really recommend making your own material to use again and again.

Hope this helps. Any questions, feel free to ask.

© 2013 - 2024 DraconianRain
Comments6
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ghost-nerdy's avatar
thanks! Now I know how to make a double word balloon