In this article by Liz Staley, author of the book Manga Studio EX 5 Cookbook, you will learn the following topics:

Adding existing 3D objects to a page
Importing a 3D object from another program
Manipulating 3D objects
Adjusting the 3D camera

(For more resources related to this topic, see here.)

One of the features of Manga Studio 5 that people ask me about all the time is 3D objects. Manga Studio 5 comes with a set of 3D assets: characters, poses, and a few backgrounds and small objects. These can be added directly to your page, posed and positioned, and used in your artwork. While I usually use these 3D poses as a reference (much like the wooden drawing dolls that you can find in your local craft store), you can conceivably use 3D characters and imported 3D assets from programs such as Poser to create entire comics.

Let's get into the third dimension now, and you will learn how to use these assets in Manga Studio 5.

Adding existing 3D objects to a page

Manga Studio 5 comes with many 3D objects present in the materials library. This is the fastest way to get started with using the 3D features.

Getting ready

You must have a page open in order to add a 3D object. Open a page of any size to start the recipes covered here.

How to do it…

The following steps will show us how to add an existing 3D material to a page:

Open the materials library. This can be done by going to Window | Material | Material [3D].
Select a category of 3D material from the list on the left-hand side of the library, or scroll down the Material library preview window to browse all the available materials.
Select a material to add to the page by clicking on it to highlight it. In this recipe, we are choosing the School girl B 02 character material. It is highlighted in the following screenshot:
Hold the left mouse button down on the selected material and drag it onto the page, releasing the mouse button once the cursor is over the page, to display the material. Alternately, you can click on the Paste selected material to canvas icon at the bottom of the Material library menu.

The selected 3D material will be added to the page. The School girl B 02 material is shown in this default character pose:

using-3d-objects-img-1

Importing a 3D object from another program

You don't have to use only the default 3D models included in Manga Studio 5. The process of importing a model is very easy.

The types of files that can be imported into Manga Studio 5 are c2fc, c2fr, fbx, 1wo, 1ws, obj, 6kt, and 6kh.

Getting ready

You must have a page open in order to add a 3D object. Open a page of any size to start this recipe. For this recipe, you will also need a model to import into the program. These can be found on numerous websites, including my.smithmicro.com, under the Poser tab.

How to do it…

The following steps will walk us through the simple process of importing a 3D model into Manga Studio 5:

Open the location where the 3D model you wish to import has been saved. If you have downloaded the 3D model from the Internet, it may be in the Downloads folder on your PC.
Arrange the windows on your computer screen so that the location of the 3D model and Manga Studio 5 are both visible, as shown in the following screenshot:
Click on the 3D model file and hold down the mouse button. While still holding down the mouse button, drag the 3D model file into the Manga Studio 5 window.
Release the mouse button.

The 3D model will be imported into the open page, as shown in this screenshot:

using-3d-objects-img-3

Manipulating 3D objects

You've learned how to add a 3D object to our project. But how can you pose it the way you want it to look for your scene? With a little time and patience, you'll be posing characters like a pro in no time!

Getting ready

Follow the directions in the Adding existing 3D objects to a page recipe before following the steps in this recipe.

How to do it…

This recipe will walk us through moving a character into a custom pose:

Be sure that the Object tool under Operation is selected.
Click on the 3D object to manipulate, if it is not already selected.
To move the entire object up, down, left, or right, hover the mouse cursor over the fourth icon in the top-left corner of the box around the selected object. Click and hold the left mouse button; then, drag to move the object in the desired direction. The following screenshot shows the location of the icon used to move the object up, down, left, or right. It is highlighted in pink and also shown over the 3D character.

If your models are moving very slowly, you may need to allocate more memory to Manga Studio EX 5. This can be done by going to File | Preferences | Performance.

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To rotate the object along the y axis (or the horizon line), hover the mouse cursor over the fifth icon in the top-left corner of the box around the selected object. Click on it, hold the left mouse button, and drag. The object will rotate along the y axis, as shown in this screenshot:
To rotate the object along the x axis (straight up and down vertically), hover the mouse cursor over the sixth icon in the top-left corner of the box around the selected object. Click and drag. The object will rotate vertically around its center, , as shown in the following screenshot:
To move the object back and forth in 3D space, hover the mouse cursor over the seventh icon in the top-left corner of the box around the selected object. Click and hold the left mouse button; then drag it. The icon is shown as follows, highlighted in pink, and the character has been moved back—away from the camera:
To move one part of a character, click on the part to be moved. For this recipe, we'll move the character's arm down. To do this, we'll click on the upper arm portion of the character to select it.
When a portion of the character is selected, a sphere with three lines circling it will appear. Each of these three lines represents one axis (x, y, and z) and controls the rotation of that portion of the character. This set of lines is shown here:
Use the lines of the sphere to rotate the part of the character to the desired position. For a more precise movement, the scroll wheel on the mouse can be used as well. In the following screenshot, the arm has been rotated so that it is down at the character's side:

Do you keep accidentally moving a part of the model that you don't want to move? Put the cursor over the part of the model that you'd like to keep in place, and then right-click. A blue box will appear on that part of the model, and the piece will be locked in to place. Right-click again to unlock the part.

How it works…

In this recipe, we covered how to move and rotate a 3D object and portions of 3D characters. This is the start of being able to create your own custom poses and saving them for reuse. It's also the way to pose the drawing doll models in Manga Studio to make pose references for your comic artwork. In the 3D-Body Type folder of the materials library, you will find Female and Male drawing dolls that can be posed just as the premade characters can. These generic dolls are great for getting that difficult pose down. Then use the next recipe, Adjusting the 3D camera, to get the angle you need, and draw away!

The following screenshot shows a drawing doll 3D object that has been posed in a custom stance.

using-3d-objects-img-10

The preceding pose was relatively easy to achieve. The figure was rotated along the x axis, and then the head and neck joints were both rotated individually so that the doll looked toward the camera. Both its arms were rotated down and then inward. The hands were posed. The ankle joints were selected and the feet were rotated so that the toes were pointed. Then the knee of the near leg was rotated to bend it. The hip of the near leg was also rotated so that the leg was lifted slightly, giving a "cutesy" look to the pose.

Having trouble posing a character's hands exactly the way you want them? Then open the Sub Tool Detail palette and click on Pose in the left-hand-side menu. In this area, you will find a menu with a picture of a hand. This is a quick controller for the fingers. Select the hand that you wish to pose. Along the bottom of the menu are some preset hand poses for things such as closed fists. At the top of each finger on this menu is an icon that looks like chain links. Click on one of them to lock the finger that it is over and prevent it from moving. The triangle area over the large blue hand symbol controls how open and closed the fingers are. You will find this menu much easier than rotating each joint individually—I'm sure!

Adjusting the 3D camera

In addition to manipulating 3D objects or characters, you can also change the position of the 3D camera to get the composition that you desire for your work. Think of the 3D camera just like a camera on a movie set. It can be rotated or moved around to frame the actors (3D characters) and scenery just the way the director wants!

Not sure whether you moved the character or the camera? Take a look at the ground plane, which is the "checkerboard" floor area underneath the characters and objects. If the character is standing straight up and down on the ground plane, it means that the camera was moved. If the character is floating above or below the ground plane, or part of the way through it, it means that the character or object was moved.

Getting ready

Follow the directions given in the Adding existing 3D objects to a page recipe before following the steps in this recipe.

How to do it…

To rotate the camera around an object (the object will remain stationary), hover the mouse cursor over the first icon in the top-left corner of the box around the selected object. Click and hold the left mouse button, and then drag. The icon and the camera rotation are shown in the following screenshot:
To move the camera up, down, left, or right, hover the mouse cursor over the second icon in the top-left corner of the box around the selected object. Click and hold the left mouse button, and then drag. The icon and camera movement are shown in this screenshot:
To move the camera back and forth in the 3D space, hover the mouse cursor over the third icon in the top-left corner of the box around the selected object. Again, click and hold the left mouse button, and then drag. The next screenshot shows the zoom icon in pink at the top and the overlay on top of the character. Note how the hand of the character and the top of the head are now out of the page, since the camera is closer to her and she appears larger on the canvas.

Summary

In this article, we have studied to add existing 3D objects to a page using Manga Studio 5 in detail. After adding the existing object, we saw steps to add the 3D object from another program. Then, there are steps to manipulate these 3D objects along the co-ordinate system by using tools available in Manga Studio 5.

Finally, we learnt to position the 3D camera, by rotating it around an object.