I am thinking of switching from Medibang Paint Pro to either Clip Studio or Ibis. The main reason being I am becoming very aware that very few (in my opinion) use it and I have come to consider that there are platforms out there that are simply.. better. Now, I do have Photoshop already and that`s something I plan on making manips with in the future (probably over the summer), but only to experiement; the platform is not my favorite, just in case one of the two options below is similar.

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Why am I considering Clip Studio?

I have heard majority of good things about it in general, not only when it comes down to manips. Furthermore, I have heard it has a solid animation feature. As an animation student, that peaked my interest; a vast majority of artists I look up to also use this program. I have heard Clip Studio is complicated.. is that true? xd

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Why am I considering Ibis?

Very simple, a lot of good artists here on HEE recommend it. The one thing stopping me is how Clip Studio seems more appealing to me in general.

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Now, price is not an issue at all; I am willing to pay for a subscription or even do one of the one-time payments. I wanted to ask here to see if anyone as experience with both and has input on strengths vs. weaknesses of both programs. If you have only used one, I`d still love to hear how the program is from your perspective, ^^

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Edit: Just in case it matters, I make art on a XP Pen and a Huion. I can not remember the models from the top of my head, but both are pen displays. I switch between them since my XP Pen is massive (larger than my laptop) while my Huion is basically iPad sized. :)

Tenebris Hollow said:

Cant say i've tried Clip studio but i absoluetly love ibis! You can also do animation on it.

Simple to use, easy to import brushes, overall doesnt make me wanna throw my tablet :)

I'll highly recommend Clip Studio. I'm the sort of person who tries out a lot of art software (I used Medibang back in the days when it was still named FireAlpaca 😅), but CSP has been my go-to workhorse for just about a decade now. It carried me easily through my art degree and is far and away the best general-purpose art program I've used.

At least from my experience it was very easy to jump in and get started with--the UI is fairly similar to Medibang's, and there are plenty of resources if you ever get lost or want to learn something new. At the same time, it's also a fully-capable professional tool. The complicated features don't get in the way if you don't need them, but they're availible if you ever do and you'll rarely need something it can't do.

If you're looking to do digital art and animation beyond photomanips, CSP has a phenomenal brush engine and color mixing; it feels great to paint in. CSP probably won't be the only tool in your toolbox if you're getting into industry-level animation, but it's one that most of my animator friends use alongside their other software and for off-hours art. That said, I've done photomanips with it and it's great for that too.

I've glanced at Ibis but haven't used it before; if you're looking for thoughts I'm happy to run it through its paces this weekend or something and give you my opinions on how it compares? From what I've seen Ibis doesn't look quite as powerful, which is why I've not tried it before now, but that's just based on a few screenshots and videos I've watched so I'm happy to try it in case I'm proven wrong.

If you do wind up choosing to go the Clip Studio route, my recommendation would be to get a CSP Pro (not EX) perpetual license. If you're not in a hurry Celsys runs sales roughly every quarter, but the last one just ended a few days ago so the next will probably be around June. Even at full price, though, it's not very expensive and I highly recommend getting perpetual licenses for art software when you can, especially since they're getting rarer these days. (Update: I do see that they do a three-month free trial—I haven't checked the terms for it, but that'd probably take you right up to the next big sale so you could try it for a bit and then buy it on sale if you liked it.)

Dash and Duchess said:

I've been using ibis for quite a while, and personally I've found it to be the most easy to use and effective application for me! It's got all the base features, smudge, blur, lasso, lasso fill/erase, etc. and it's got hundreds of other brushes you can download onto it. If you decide to give it a try I'd be more than happy to help you find things/navigate the app :)

Thronesfell said:

I'll highly recommend Clip Studio. I'm the sort of person who tries out a lot of art software (I used Medibang back in the days when it was still named FireAlpaca 😅), but CSP has been my go-to workhorse for just about a decade now. It carried me easily through my art degree and is far and away the best general-purpose art program I've used.

At least from my experience it was very easy to jump in and get started with--the UI is fairly similar to Medibang's, and there are plenty of resources if you ever get lost or want to learn something new. At the same time, it's also a fully-capable professional tool. The complicated features don't get in the way if you don't need them, but they're availible if you ever do and you'll rarely need something it can't do.

If you're looking to do digital art and animation beyond photomanips, CSP has a phenomenal brush engine and color mixing; it feels great to paint in. CSP probably won't be the only tool in your toolbox if you're getting into industry-level animation, but it's one that most of my animator friends use alongside their other software and for off-hours art. That said, I've done photomanips with it and it's great for that too.

I've glanced at Ibis but haven't used it before; if you're looking for thoughts I'm happy to run it through its paces this weekend or something and give you my opinions on how it compares? From what I've seen Ibis doesn't look quite as powerful, which is why I've not tried it before now, but that's just based on a few screenshots and videos I've watched so I'm happy to try it in case I'm proven wrong.

If you do wind up choosing to go the Clip Studio route, my recommendation would be to get a CSP Pro (not EX) perpetual license. If you're not in a hurry Celsys runs sales roughly every quarter, but the last one just ended a few days ago so the next will probably be around June. Even at full price, though, it's not very expensive and I highly recommend getting perpetual licenses for art software when you can, especially since they're getting rarer these days. (Update: I do see that they do a three-month free trial—I haven't checked the terms for it, but that'd probably take you right up to the next big sale so you could try it for a bit and then buy it on sale if you liked it.)