I had been thinking of buying a Wacom tablet until I saw a video today of someone using a touch screen computer for Blender. I probably wouldn’t buy the whole computer, just the touch screen monitor. What is everyone’s opinion on using a pen tablet versus a touch screen?
Jeremy
You should start by being more specific than “touch screen”. That could mean anything from a Cintiq, an iPad, or one of those self-checkout machines they have at supermarkets.
Btw, not to sound like an ad, but the Touchsmart TM2 has a combined EMR pen + touch screen, so you’re getting both technologies if you care for that.
Ok… With all respect… I can’t quite agree with Pesho. I personally very much prefer working with a tablet in Blender than a mouse. But then “need” is a very relative term… you don’t “need” a mouse either, you could use a touchpad too.
I have owned a touchscreen/tablet laptop in the past and I really liked it. But it was not very practical since really for Blender you also always want a keyboard. And keyboard/touchscreen isn’t a very nice combo.
I’d say, start small… get yourself an affordable tabled like a bamboo and try that for a bit to see if you like it.
ps, in general using a pen in blender is nicer than a finger because it’s much more precise (I completely agree with pesho on that)
Sure it’s nicer, but considering that Blender is a 3D application, the uses for a tablet are limited to sculpting and texture painting. If you use Blender for architectural modeling/rendering, animation or anything else, you’ll never be anywhere near the tablet.
It takes some getting used to, but using a tablet for general modelling in Blender is perfectly viable. I do it sometimes. You have to set your pen’s right button to click&tap, otherwise selection is problematic, but once you do and get used to it, it’s actually faster to work with because you can make more precise clicks per second. I still usually use the mouse though. Old habits die hard.
Thanks for the great replies! I guess I can be more specific on a couple of things:
I would use the tablet both for Blender and for digital applications like GIMP/Photoshop. This would include drawing textures, painting in Blender, sculpting, etc.
When referring to touchscreen, I was referring to something that is a monitor that connects to my current pc. They have a whole pc/monitor touchscreen in one but that’s more than what I want to spend (like a Cintiq I spose). I guess I’m trying to compare like prices, such as a Wacom Intuos 4 Large Tablet ($400ish) to a touchscreen around the same price.
I looked at the Bamboos but wasn’t sure if that would provide everything I need (such as pressure sensitivity, buttons on the pen, etc). I guess I don’t wanna spend $100 on a Bamboo and then find out down the road I should have just saved up a couple more hundred dollars for a better tablet (like an Intuos).
Concerning my arms getting tired, I had another idea. I had seen the video of the guy using both his hands and/or a pen with his touchscreen computer. I believe it was an Acer. If I went this route, could I just lay the touchscreen monitor flat or at a slight angle (as if drawing on a drawing table).
It seems like you could get a touchscreen monitor for $400 and get twice the size area to draw on than a tablet. But if that type of monitor touchscreen doesn’t do pressure sensitivity and that’s a must, then I’d get the tablet.
Sorry for all the questions, I don’t know anything about either of these and have just started my journey on finding out which one I would like to try out. Thanks for all the info!
Jeremy
Get a small Wacom. You really don’t need a large one. I would know - I have a large one, and I have to restrict the working area to a quarter of it’s size to be comfortable. Don’t worry about precision - when painting on a computer, you can always zoom in! You only need a large one if you’ve worked on traditional media for a long time and have a style that involves large sweeping strokes. And that’s only for 2d painting, with sculpting you won’t need that much area in any case.
I don’t think you are getting the difference between the two technologies.
“Touchscreen” is just a thin layer of polymer or glass on top of the screen that detects roughly where your finger is when you touch it. It will not detect a pen, or any sort of insulator. These are completely un-precise and cannot be used for drawing at all. Touchscreens normally don’t have pressure sensitivity.
“Tablet” refers to a printed circuit board that can detect an electromagnetic field when it’s on. A copper coil inside the stylus tip sends out a signal to the printed circuit board, which detects the exact area of interference and can determine where the pen is with high accuracy. Even if the pen is hovering more than a centimeter above the tablet, it will be detected because of the electromagnetic field. This is what artists use for drawing. When you place it behind an LCD screen, you have a Cintiq. ALL tablets such as this have pressure sensitivity.
Some tablets in the bamboo series have the standard electromagnetic tablet combined with a touschreen layer on top of the plastic surface. This includes both technologies, but the “touch” part is used only for gestures because it’s not precise like the pen.
A Cintiq is what you need, but since Wacom holds the monopoly on these products, they can afford to jack-up their prices sky-high. The chinese manufacturer Hanvon make their own clone called the SenTIP, but it’s not that much cheaper. Another option is to look for an old Wacom PL-550 Cintiq with a serial connection. These are quite old, but do the job perfectly if you manage to get the software working.
pressure sensitivity and accuracy of input come in handy with a tablet when sculpting. sculpting is kind of a weird hybrid of drawing so it really benefits from a tablet. for accuracy of input just open any program like gimp and try and write your name with a mouse and see how long it takes to get it to match your natural script.
i have a monoprice 10x6 its really nice…
Shipped to $56 from monoprice website
i have never used a “Wacom” brand so i cant compare them…
this one has 1024 levels of pressure sensitivity…
this one
they have
A different style pen for under $10
(i order this one as well… the buttons on this one dont get in the way at all,
but… can be hard to locate when you want to press them, im using this pen at the moment,
thinking about switching back to to the standard pen that came with it even although its a little heavier,
thinking about maybe AAA lithium batteries since that are a little bit lighter)
i haven’t tried lithium batteries in the pen yet but if you do,
put them first in mini-flash light or other appliance for a few
minutes to let the charge “normalize”/lower since fresh lithium are above 1.5v at peak.
10 extra nibs under a buck
I’ve had some bad experiences with non-Wacom tablets. Sensitivity to interference, heavy, battery laden styli, wonky pressure curves, iffy buttons, creaking surfaces, bad drivers, no support for dual screen setups, no driver updates for new OS versions, no Linux support… Get a Wacom.
If you got $ get a “Wacom” 
If i had the money i would get this
$399 Bluetooth Wireless
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16823100065
or this…
$349
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16823100052&Tpk=Wacom
All very good advice. You all have cleared up a lot of questions for me. Sounds like the best thing to go with for me is probably going to be a Wacom tablet. I wanna make sure that if I’m going to spend anything over $100 it might as well be name brand and of good quality.
You mentioned not getting anything too large which makes sense. Is 8"x5" adequate? or should I go for the 12"x8"?
I found the link that I watched last night of the guy using a touchscreen type deal. What kind of device is this?
Jeremy
I have a wireless Wacom Graphire tablet and it works like a dream. I could never imagine sculpting or drawing without it again. Definitely get something with a large range of pressure sensitivity, you’d be surprised how it comes in handy. I’d also recommend one that can detect the tilt of the pen. Some apps don’t support it, but for instance in Photoshop it makes changing the rotation of a given brush completely controllable which allows for much more freedom.
The Intuos4 Bluetooth Wireless has 2048 Pressure Levels and ± 60 degrees of Tilt Sensivity. Is that enough?
It’s drawing wize is 8"x5" so this is probably the one I’d want to get…
I’ve heard good things about it. mine is 6x8 and it feel like plenty of drawing area. Not that I’d turn down one of the new Cintiq screens, but it suits my needs just fine. Once you get over the hump of learning to draw where you’re not actually looking, work becomes a breeze.
The Intuos4 Bluetooth Wireless has 2048 Pressure Levels and ± 60 degrees of Tilt Sensivity. Is that enough?
That is more than enough.
I’m a metric person, so I’ll just tell you to get the one labelled Small, whichever that is :). Or Medium if you feel you really must.
That’s a full PC built into the screen. Did you notice how his arm is up the air all the time? This is fun for 30 minutes, then your back starts to hurt, just like when you’re trying to paint on traditional canvas at a desk. An actual Cintiq has a stand that’s significantly lower, and that rotates freely. And you can connect it to something that has more processing power.