Clip Studio Paint, a cross-platform application for character art, concept art, and illustration, has reached a major milestone with the release of version 4.0.
The standout feature of this update is the new Puppet warp tool, which lets users bend and adjust their drawings using pins that act like joints. This allows for flexible transformations, making 2D artwork behave similarly to customizable 3D rigs.
This feature can be especially useful for 2D game sprite animation, allowing animators to quickly create poses and generate fluid movements without needing to make drawing adjustments for each frame. It can also serve as a tool for experimenting with different poses, making it easier to test variations before committing to the final changes through manual drawing.
Manga artist Hei Taro showcased the new feature, demonstrating how it can be used to adjust the pose of a monochrome manga character. The artist explained that it can be applied to multiple selected layers, ensuring that when using tone layers or monochrome expression color layers, issues like moiré patterns or line graying are prevented.
In addition to the Puppet Warp tool, this release offers several other significant features. Clip Studio Paint now allows users to preview and compare multiple filters while color correcting and refining their work, with two new filters added: one for extracting line art from images and another for creating blur effects similar to camera lenses.
The 3D capabilities have also been expanded, now enabling users to paint directly on 3D objects. Additionally, users can paint on guidelines or patterns to create references for different angles and poses. Other 3D enhancements include support for shadows, as well as the ability to import additional 3D file formats such as STL, BVH, and VRM.
Object snapping has been improved and now applies when moving or transforming vector layers, rulers, text, and more. Users can now snap to grids, guides, rulers, canvas edges, canvas center, and other elements.
For the complete list of new features and improvements, be sure to visit the announcement on Clip Studio Paint's website. The application is currently on sale with a discount of up to 60%, which ends soon.
