I don’t think I’d like working with a corded pen.
Other than that it sounds pretty ok.
And almost any graphics tablet is better than no graphics tablet I guess
I’ve got a wacom intuos2 and I like it alot
Mmm… Wacoms 4d mouse is great. It takes some time getting used to though since it doesn’t move like a regular mouse (directions are relative to the tablet instead of the mouse). But now I’d never go back to a regular mouse. And those extra buttons are good to have too
Only thing I don’t like is the felt like stuff underneath it, it glides well but gets mucked up pretty quick. Anyone have a cleaning tip? (or maybe I should try to actually read the manual for once :-? )
I’d recomend the intuos2 A5. Mine is an A4, but that’s probably bigger than necessary (still it feels great working with all that space :D).
Get yourself a wacom tablet. They are more expensive, but they are much MUCH better than any other tablet.
Problem with corded pens is if the cord develops a loose wire.
I have a Wacom Graphire 2. Came with PainterClassic, which is probably way better than “JamStudio”.
The Graphire has an active area of 4x6, but its got a higher resolution 1015 lines over 4 inch, and 512 pressure leves, plus it comes with a wheel mouse as well as a cordless pen.
I have the same Graphire 2 tablet as rndrdbrian. It’s a great buy at $85 US with shipping from Newegg.com! I think you probably don’t want the added weight of the cord attached to your pen. I find the 4x6 inch size very comfortable to use as well. Just remember that it will only act as a normal mouse in Blender, and that it’s much more usefull for creating textures and things in the Photoshop LE that it comes with (or really any graphics package).
i got that tablet i think by jam for about $20 (clearance) and love it. the cord is plenty long and doesn’t get in the way. been using it over a year now. ditch that jam software though. just install and use it with photoshop or any other app you may have.
From what i’ve heard Wacom is the way to go, anyone else and you’ll run into combatibility problems, hardware problems(not built as well) and out of all the tablets i’ve seen wacom has better features.
Been pondering over getting a graphic tablet for a while, reason i asked for opinions was that I went on ebay last night (Australian ebay, that is) and I saw this tablet (as described above) for, about, AUD $45. And … oh hell, the biddings just closed…crap. Well, it looks like its gonna be a wacom.
I’m interested in picking up a tablet. I know that they are great for using with Photoshop, but has anyone used them with The GIMP? Linux, Windows, neither, both? Also, has anyone used them with one of the awesome freebie paint progs like Pixia or Project Dogwaffle?
Nope
I looked for a patch or something, but didn’t find one. So I can’t use the gimp. I guess I could use my old mouse, but that’d be like painting with my toes.
I ended up installing a Linux os so I can run the Linux version hopefully (I haven’t tried it yet). The Windows version is generally ok but it’s just being maintained by ONE guy!
Hey all. I actually had one of those things, but it sucked (it was this Disney thing), and eventually it broke so that whenever I tried to use the pen thing, it didn’t work.
I’d like to get another, but I have no idea of what to do! I saw “Waking Life” (jaw-dropping animation for 2D–go see it and if you hate philosophy, just mute it and watch the animation) and they used a specific kind that, using their software, whenever you pressed down hard, the lines you drew were thicker; the lighter you draw, the more thinner. Anybody know what this is? Is it Mac-only (they used Macs for “Waking Life”)?
Yeah, but they used special software for rotoscoping. Oh well. Any freeware that does that kind of thing? Do any relatively cheap drawing tablets do that?
Ya the Graphire 2 that I mentioned earlier can definitly support it. In photoshop for the brush tool you have 3 options for the pressure:
1)Thickness of the line. The harder you push, the thicker the line
2)Opacity. 0% pressure = transparent, 100% pressure = opaque
3)Color fade. Light pressure = color 1, Hard pressure = color 2, and it fades nicely between them.
The Graphire2 has 512 levels of pressure, and I probably wouldn’t notice a difference in the pressure gradiant if I had 1024. I mean look at it mathematically…
In a 24 bit system, 8 bits are reserved for each color channel (R,G,B). This offers 256 possible values. That’s 1/2 of the Graphire 2’s pressure sensitivity! If you took the color fade option then you could go from 1 color (with a maximum of 256 levels) and went to another color, you’d have a range of 512- which matches exactly with the tablet! Did any of that make any sence?
I really see the only advantage for the 1024 levels of pressure would be in Pen-supporting 3D packages like Maya. The pen is good for use with the artisan tools where you “paint” on the surface of an object to deform it. Obviously dealing with decimals in 3D space is more sensitive to accuracy thand dealing with whole numbers in RGB values.
But you don’t necessarily use the entire pressure scale. I don’t press very hard so I changed my settings so that maximum pressure is already at 80% sor something like that.
Some tablets can also read the tilt of the pen So you can really draw some pretty cool stuff (for example use pressure for color opacity and tilt for brush thickness) takes some getting used to though.
