Fractal Softworks Forum

Other => Discussions => Topic started by: Pelly on January 16, 2014, 01:22:03 AM

Title: Drawing Tablet - What to get...
Post by: Pelly on January 16, 2014, 01:22:03 AM
First Post in months....

I am going to buy a drawing tablet soonish (i have been drawing more due to 3d shizal and some texture work) and need a good idea of some of the options I can get

Looking for a decent one with 1024+ levels of sensitivity, decent size 10 inches +.

I am looking at a few options (not even considering Wacom, had one before and it *** me over - and other rl friends hate them due to the crap cables and the nibs wearing out quickly)

So any ideas for me? (I don't mind the price so much I just need a good Idea of options)

Especially looking to Shadow for advice :P
Title: Re: Drawing Tablet - What to get...
Post by: Magician on January 16, 2014, 03:19:01 AM
Are you sure? Wacoms, especially intuos series are one of the most used by professionals. Though price is a bit high. Something like Genius has good enough specs and probably is sufficient for hobby usage. If I were in your shoes and didn't have to worry about budget, I would definitely go with intuos series (though you should research details, cause some ppl prefer series 4 over 5), and if I had really good budget, I would try and see if using Cintiq is easier than normal tablet. Yet again, some professionals still prefer to use normal tablet, like intuos 4, over Cintiq. Depends on how you draw.
But otherwise Genius F610 with 2048 sensitivity isn't that bad, and its really cheap. There are many other smaller brands with, as I heard, decent quality, but I didn't use them myself so I can't recommend much.
Title: Re: Drawing Tablet - What to get...
Post by: xenoargh on January 16, 2014, 05:38:07 PM
I keep looking at this, trying to decide what I'd get.  Intuous is still far too expensive, and the few firms that have offered similar products have come and gone extremely rapidly (my guess is that they were reliant on suppliers making touchscreens, but were too low-volume / low-profit and they have not been able to get more hardware... that or Wacom has managed to sue them to death). 

Anyhow, from what I've read online, Corel Painter Essentials (http://www.corel.com/corel/product/index.jsp?pid=prod3430222&cid=catalog20038&segid=6000014#tab2) and a touch-screen are supposed to be a really good combo; I'm thinking that the next time I have a little spare cash, I'll invest in a USB touchscreen or a cheap tablet PC and buy that and see how it goes.  I've tried regular tablets, but I just don't find them intuitive; I like to look down when I'm drawing and up when I'm painting.
Title: Re: Drawing Tablet - What to get...
Post by: Desforrar on January 16, 2014, 06:00:42 PM
I am using Intuos for years... if you think you will find something better in same price category...

Xeno, you are wrong - after few hours using of cheaper alternative you will notice pretty big differences. Once you go Intuos you won´t go back, only up (and there isn´t exactly plenty options for that)

P.S: yep, 4th serie
Title: Re: Drawing Tablet - What to get...
Post by: David on January 17, 2014, 09:01:21 AM
Yeah, Wacom is the way to go, for better or worse -- the professional grade, mind you, not the "Bamboo" series or whatever it is. The drivers are a little touchy, and parts do wear out after a few years of professional use, but that's how it goes. Your tablet should come with additional nibs in the pen holder thing, btw; I go through maybe 3 or 4 a year so it's not so bad.

I've got a large Intuos 3 at work and and a medium Intuos 5 at home. The artists at Gaslamp use Cintiqs but I can't stand them -- I'm so used to drawing with a tablet that I can't stand having my hand in the way of an image. Plus, the Cintiq's colour / contrast is just a little bit off so it looks slightly different vs a normal monitor. Can't stand that either, have to tell my art team to hue-shift their work all the time to correct for it.

As for drawing with your hand on the image vs a tablet: It's a hand-eye coordination skill thing. You're going to suck at first, but you will learn to do it if you stick to it. I was a mostly traditional artist who wasn't very good at digital painting via tablet back in 2007 until I made a conscious effort to just stick to cranking out a few drawings with my tablet every day until my brain figured out how to transfer my hand-drawing skills to tablet. Now I prefer using a tablet for everything.

Right; good luck!
Title: Re: Drawing Tablet - What to get...
Post by: Noilei on January 17, 2014, 09:16:54 AM
Hey , I'm not too informed with graphics tablets; I have an older Wacom Intuos and I can say it's great :) However if you choose to go Wacom, I'm pretty sure they've ditched the lower end 'bamboo' series and unified then into intusos range , so now the intuos pen/ pen and touch is basically the old bamboo pen/ pen and touch and the intuos PRO is the old intuos , confusing I know. I may be wrong but last time I checked it was like that. Also if you're looking for a cheaper alternative to a Cinque Wacom just realsed a tablet/laptop with great specs and a Wacom digitiser , so you as use it as a Cinque . I think it's called the Companion or something. Also Microsofts Surface Pro , and surface pro 2 tablets both have Wacom digitisers and feature pretty good pressure and maybe even tilt sensitivity.
Title: Re: Drawing Tablet - What to get...
Post by: Desforrar on January 17, 2014, 09:51:54 AM
I will ninja this thread a bit, but since David is here.. just interested in something you wrote about Cintiqs:

I know their visual properties are not good enough for color checkup (and for professional use calibrated Eizo or alternative is a must). But you actually doesn´t work workflow, is it really "just" hand in the way or do you have another problem with Cintiqs?
Title: Re: Drawing Tablet - What to get...
Post by: David on January 17, 2014, 10:51:58 AM
Re. Bamboo/touch: Yeah, I guess they DID roll that into the Intuos. I don't like the touch features - my cat keeps stepping on it, then stepping on the tablet and messing everything up. I just want a pen and tablet, not all these other random buttons and features!

(& I am indeed looking forward to the day that Wacom gets some serious competitors. It'll be good for digital artists.)

I will ninja this thread a bit, but since David is here.. just interested in something you wrote about Cintiqs:

I know their visual properties are not good enough for color checkup (and for professional use calibrated Eizo or alternative is a must). But you actually doesn´t work workflow, is it really "just" hand in the way or do you have another problem with Cintiqs?


Re. the Cintiq
- Colour: We got a colour calibration device ("Spyder") but didn't find that the results solved our problems. Possibly we need to fiddle with everything more. Still ...
- Glare: Depending on your lighting, you can have a problem with glare off the surface. We did, had to adjust lighting in the art room.
- Hand/eye stuff: Yes, partly I don't like having to put my hand in the way. There's otherwise a very small gap between screen surface and visual surface but it seems that can be adjusted to quickly.

Man, I just loathe the idea of me using the Cintiq. The other guys love them though, so it's really up to what you feel is best for your work. And whether you have a couple grand to throw at it.
Title: Re: Drawing Tablet - What to get...
Post by: Desforrar on January 18, 2014, 11:36:00 AM
Thank you for your answer. I for sure need to try one before investment (gap and glare are actually two things I was considering as possibly biggest issues)
Title: Re: Drawing Tablet - What to get...
Post by: xenoargh on January 18, 2014, 03:35:18 PM
Well, I managed to borrow an Intuous today; I guess I'll play around with it and see how it goes :)
Title: Re: Drawing Tablet - What to get...
Post by: xenoargh on January 18, 2014, 06:50:16 PM
Well, that was more fun than I expected :)

Punk Junkers comm screen:

(http://www.wolfegames.com/TA_Section/punk_junkers.jpg)
Title: Re: Drawing Tablet - What to get...
Post by: xenoargh on January 21, 2014, 07:13:10 AM
I think you'll be surprised; I thought I'd have a lot more trouble getting the feel right, but it's already a go-to tool for me.  Was really surprised by how easy it was, once I figured out that I could just move the stylus above the board a little bit and move the cursor without drawing, etc.

The only thing I haven't figured out yet is how to turn pressure sensitivity OFF when I want it off.  Being a mouse-painter by long habit, there are some very real advantages to having perfect flow control at times (especially for doing soft gradients, where I want a teeny bit of new paint every stroke, and I want it perfectly even) and this is the one thing I need to figure out.  I'm sure that's just a Google away, but been busy :)
Title: Re: Drawing Tablet - What to get...
Post by: xenoargh on January 21, 2014, 09:03:13 AM
Cool, that turned out to be super-easy to turn off pressure sensitivity; it's in the brush presets.  Yay, that was the one major thing I was missing from mouse-painting :)
Title: Re: Drawing Tablet - What to get...
Post by: Pelly on January 21, 2014, 12:50:27 PM
Well my tablet got here early and I really agree with xeno...it is sooo much easier to draw, thoug i still make vomit monsters when i don't pay attention :D
Title: Re: Drawing Tablet - What to get...
Post by: xenoargh on January 22, 2014, 09:56:18 AM
Can't wait to see what you cook up :)
Title: Re: Drawing Tablet - What to get...
Post by: icepick37 on January 22, 2014, 09:59:06 AM
Got a bamboo years ago and still need to learn to draw on it, haha.  Sigh.  I don't really art by hand either, though, so yeah.
Title: Re: Drawing Tablet - What to get...
Post by: xenoargh on January 30, 2014, 09:14:24 AM
Great, glad to see that's starting to work for you :)