Sketch pad?

[Varg|Hund]

Hey, I was thinking about starting using one of them sketch things you connect to your computer. Am I making sense?

So, what is their real name? And how much does an average one cost?

 

[Maxi]

Graphical pad or something I think. And I guess around 50€?

Waco or something simmilare makes the best ones, Graphire series.

 

[Stone]

A tablet, I use a Wacom....... and mine twas free (the best price :E )

 

[LittleB]

I want one too Cheapest new is like 80 bucks

 

[Sprafa]

If I'm not wrong Fenric uses thoses things, maybe when he snips by he'll say something "professional".

 

[Stone]

If I'm not wrong Fenric uses thoses things, maybe when he snips by he'll say something "professional".

oh, you wanted "professional".... ermm.....does this work:

what kind of tablet do you use?
i have a 12 by 12 inch and a 6 by 8 inch Wacom "intuos" tablet.


how does a drawing tablet work?
when you hold the pen slightly above the tablet you can move the cursor around the screen and when you place the pen to the tablet it is as if you are holding down your mouse button.

when you draw on a tablet it can relate to the screen in two different ways.

Mouse Mode
the first way called "Mouse Mode" it works as a mouse that you hold in like a pen. this means that you see the cursor on the screen and when you put the pen down on the tablet the cursor stays where it is and you can begin drawing, if you run out of room on the tablet you lift the pen up and move it to the other side and continue drawing.

Pen Mode
in the second way, called "Pen Mode" the tablet area is mapped to the screen. if you put the pen on the lower right corner of the tablet, the cusor appears at the lower right corner of the screen. if you move the pen to the left 20 percent of the length of the tablet the cursor will move left 20 percent the length of the sceen. this is useful if you have a image on paper that you want to trace with the tablet.

other controls
on the pen there are two programable buttons and on the tablet there is a row of 13 programable buttons.
beyond the buttons, with the control panel you can adjust almost every thing. some drawing and painting programs react to how you use the pen on tablet. for example in photoshop you can set the brush size to relate to the pressure put on the pen. holding down the pen lightly produces a thin line pressing down hard creates a thicker line. some programs will even react to the angle you hold the pen. because different programs work with the pen in different ways you can use the control panel to create different setting for each program



what kind of tablet should i buy?
i would recomend any Wacom tablet that is at least 6 by 8 inches. i have found the 4 by 5 inch size to be small and somewhat useless. also think about desk space, i love using the 12 by 12inch tablet but finding room for it on my desk is difficult.

also don't get excited by the mouse that comes with the tablets. it can be useful but it is not a replacement for a real mouse

what program should i use with a tablet?
i use adobe photoshop but it is not made for drawing so it can be limiting. if you want a program made for drawing and painting try procreate's painter, it is fun to use and gives you a large amount of control on how the brushes work.
if you want to draw in a vector program you can use illustrator, but i recommend tryingmacromedia's flash for drawing even if you want to export to illustrator or freehand to edit the image. i have not used freehand in a long time, so i have no idea how well it works with a tablet

when you purchasing a program to use with your tablet try to find out if it is fully compatible and try out the program before you buy. for example Painter 7 for the mac gives you many options for working with a tablet, these options are very cool. but it does not work when the tablet is set to "Mouse Mode". Flash 4 for the mac did the same thing. this can be quite irritating.

have you used the Cintiq tablets?
no, but i really want to.

i have been trying to draw with my tablet but it is really hard, can you give me some suggestions?
one thing i found to make drawing easier is to tape a piece of drawing paper over the tablet surface. that way i am not drawing on the slick plastic and it feels more like drawing on paper.

other than that just play around and practice. for the first month don't plan on doing a finished piece of art, just try every thing you can and experiment with the program. I had used photoshop for 3 years before i got my first tablet once i did i used it in a completely different way.

 

[Sprafa]

oh, you wanted "professional".... ermm.....does this work:

it's pretty good, now let's wait for Varg to thank you

 

[Kazuki_Fuse]

I've got a 12x12 inch wacom intuos 2 tablet, and it's sooooo very good.
If you're serious about design and illustration, I have to be 'cause it's my profession, i'd get an intuos 2, say 9X9. The cintique looks awesome, I wish I had enough dough for that tablet.

 

[Varg|Hund]

/me thanks Stone.
Seriously man, 'tis great :E

Unfortuantly I wont be buying one, seeing as all my money is going to a...debt..

 

[chu]

I love my 9x12 intuos2.

Anyone here have the airbrush? If so how well does it work?

 

[The Dark Elf]

I love my 9x12 intuos2.

Anyone here have the airbrush? If so how well does it work?

Dunno but how annoying is that, releasing the damn Intuos3 tablets just when I order an Intuos2 LOL!

 

[Dead-Inside]

I so need one of those... I can't draw with the mouse. (I can HS ppl like hell in all online games, but when it comes to drawing a straight line I can't do shit right).

 

[The Dark Elf]

I so need one of those... I can't draw with the mouse. (I can HS ppl like hell in all online games, but when it comes to drawing a straight line I can't do shit right).

I'd not worry, few people can draw well with a mouse.

You can pick up tablets pretty cheap. The Graphire3's are good for starting with. They certainly pay for themselves do tablets.

 

[CR0M]

As an illustrator/designer i've been using wacoms for the last 8 years, can't use a mouse anymore 'cept for gaming. If only fps would work with a pen and tablet, think of all the precision headshots...

The Airbrush is kinda pointless imo, it does all the same things as a pen but has the extra bonus of being awkward to hold. Suited to designers who are used to airbrushing. Never did like the things, too much cleaning afterwards :/

Yeah varg|hund the graphire is ok for home use but not that accurate, if you're gonna be using it for design then an intuos 2 is fine. Just ditch the mouse, it sucketh

 

[The Dark Elf]

Intuos3.. seems they are no longer making the Intuos2 unless its Serial mode and over the A4 or A4 oversized sizes. Otherwise Intuos3 is the only one.

I'm trying to change my order to one now, even though I think the Intuos2 look nicer, 3 has much better accuracy.

 

[CR0M]

hmm... might have to get one, tho my 2 is great and i've only had it a year. Damn upgrades never end. Still got my original old Artpad II lurking somewhere, and that old dinosaur still does the job too

 

[The Dark Elf]

hmm... might have to get one, tho my 2 is great and i've only had it a year. Damn upgrades never end. Still got my original old Artpad II lurking somewhere, and that old dinosaur still does the job too

Loads of people still love those old Artpads, some swear by them hehe

The intuos2 is just fine, other than the increased accuracy and some fancy buttons on the side, 3 doesn't seem much better. What is worrying me though, is replacement parts. IIRC the intuos2 parts wouldn't work for the earlier ones. If that happens with the intuos3 (and I've not been able to find out yet) then a lot of people are going to be annoyed at just buying a 2 and not being told about the new version.

Though it looks like the airbrush, the different pens all have remained the same as the intuos2, just a different number on the end. So hopefully thats all thats changed.

I'd still be quite happy with an intuos2. Can't possibly be worse than the cheap one I've used so far heh.

 

[The Dark Elf]

OMG OMG OMG OMG I got an Intuos3!!! hahaha this is so cool!


Dear god this thing looks expensive hahaha

 

[CR0M]

wtf? by accident?

 

[The Dark Elf]

wtf? by accident?

I'd ordered an A4 regular Intuos2. They called today to say it had arrived. I went to pick it up, he brought out this Intuos3 box. Funniest sight ever was me keeping quiet and trying not to grin at this most excellent mistake

Naa thinking about it I think that was why there had been a delay, all Intuos2 orders replaced with Intuos3, he said it was the first time he'd seen one of these, so i think im one of the few in the area with one. I'm over the moon about this, really. It is so cool

If anyone is ever in Leeds, go buy stuff from the Apple Store on Merrion street, best store ever!


gee is it obvious im excited? haha

 

[The Dark Elf]

Damn this thing is cool.. has buttons on the side, and touch strips, that you can setup for different controls, like zooming in and out just by the touch of a finger (like a laptop thing)

lol WOW!

 

[LittleB]

Alright Mr. Elf calm yourself.

Now, may I have whatever old drawing tablet you have left over?

 

[The Dark Elf]

Alright Mr. Elf calm yourself.

Now, may I have whatever old drawing tablet you have left over?

hehe i can't help it.. this thing is brilliant


and yeah sure have the old one

 

[Varg|Hund]

Sounds great man :E

/me looks sadly at his empty wallet.
Sooo, when are you going out Elf? Leaving the house unguarded anytime soon? :naughty:

 

[The Dark Elf]

Sounds great man :E

/me looks sadly at his empty wallet.
Sooo, when are you going out Elf? Leaving the house unguarded anytime soon? :naughty:

hehe, seriously mate, save up for it. Maybe its just the difference for me going from a Packard Bell cheap one, to this. But wow I finally see why Wacom are considered the best lol.

One problem though.. it now makes everything else in my room look pants.. So I now need to save up and take a trip to Ikea to buy matching furniture lol

Oh CROM. The mouse is great, they must have really listened about all the compaints of mice from before. This one works really well.

 

[LittleB]

...and yeah sure have the old one

Is that sarcasm? ;(

 

[The Dark Elf]

Is that sarcasm? ;(

No. But you might not want it, its A5, Packard Bell, 512 pressure level, 4,096 lpi

its out of production, there's a small burn mark from where ash fell on its surface, the pen nib is almost completely warn down. And there's no extra features

http://www.cool-icam.com/web/eng/product/DICKII.html
thats my old one. It's not half as bad as I complain about tbh. You've seen what I've done with it, so its certainly capable

http://www.wacom.com/productinfo/9x12.cfm
thats my new one.

http://www.cclcomputers.biz/acatalo...ers.biz/acatalog/input_tablet.htm&CatalogBody

there's a list of cheap tablets, i haven't tried them though, But Genius is usually good. And its something to practice on first.

 

[EVIL]

http://www.wacom.com/productinfo/9x12.cfm
thats my new one.

haha.. damn cool man, I might be getting an intuos 3 to (is 9x12 inches A4 size? - I hate inches).. they are not expencive.. traditional materials are way more expencive then an intuos

 

[The Dark Elf]

haha.. damn cool man, I might be getting an intuos 3 to (is 9x12 inches A4 size? - I hate inches).. they are not expencive.. traditional materials are way more expencive then an intuos

It's worth it. £339. I had thought maybe they were a bit too expensive for what it is, but I do see now why Wacom are that price.

9x12 is A4 yeah.. Can get bigger. But tbh I think A3 is probably too much unless you do lots of technical drawings or CAD. It's far too big for what I'd ever need it for, A4 is great for me.. shame it doesn't completely fit on the desk but never mind I'll live with that

Really has some cool features on it. Love the touchpad idea, work much faster in photoshop now when zooming in and out. I reckon once I've got used to it I'll be able to set it up so I don't even need the keyboard while working, not with all the buttons on it to use.

 

[LittleB]

Watchoo talkin about cheap? Man I don't got any money

damn... I'm already saving like 35 bucks (i'm at about 25) for a used voodoo5 5500

 

[CR0M]

Oh CROM. The mouse is great, they must have really listened about all the compaints of mice from before. This one works really well.

That's good news. I hated the intuos 2 version. Does it still use a carpet stuck underneath to glide effortlessly (lol yeah right) on?


Great achievement! I've succeeded in wearing down my first stylus tip to a flat stump and just had to replace it with the spare one Only took a year.

 

[CrazyHarij]

Wow, somebody's gonna sleep well tonight

I'm trying to get an affordable tablet.. Probably Intuos 2 or something, I'm not sure though.

 

[Varg|Hund]

Give me your old one, you nasty british midget! :O

Seriously, how much would you want for it? :naughty:

 

[The Dark Elf]

That's good news. I hated the intuos 2 version. Does it still use a carpet stuck underneath to glide effortlessly (lol yeah right) on?

lol it sure does the mouse is great for cleaning the surface with eh

With my other tablet, there were few controls, so the mouse was in pen mode. Very offputting. I'm pretty sure the intuos3 one works the same as the intuos2 with a special mouse mode. And to me it does feel much better. Acceleration though was awful, had to turn that off and slow it all down a bit. And turn off the quickmode which I couldn't get used to (where it uses a smaller area of the active surface)

Atleast now though I know what the 4D mouse is 4D for.. not sure I like it. But I think its really cool how Wacom let you setup each tool independantly for each app you use. I have wanted that for sooooooooo long.

I should have really used an Intuos2 before, because I'm comparing this one to a £60 one. But it does feel great to use. The touchpads and extra buttons are a brilliant idea. And I'm over the moon that I can now setup the duoswitch in photoshop to use one for the color picker and one for right mouse. so much easier when your trying to find the right color, instead of messing around with changing tools or reachin to the keyboard.

Something though I'm not so used to, is the pressure levels. Even with changing the pressue settings I'm finding it harder to get used to the difference between these and 512 levels. The accuracy though is amazing. I really can see why you guys love your wacoms so much

I still think the Intuos2 had a great color scheme though, I loved the purple look to it, that was the one I was getting hehe

Great achievement! I've succeeded in wearing down my first stylus tip to a flat stump and just had to replace it with the spare one Only took a year.

What are the other nibs like? It looks to be the same grip pen as the intuos2 (which I'm hoping is a good thing meaning you can use all the same ones if you upgrade) I haven't tried them yet, theres one that has more friction (dark gray) two replacement ones for the regular nib, and one that has a spring in it which is supposed to give a softer feel.. I'd use them but I'm thinking if I run those tips down, I'd have to get used to the regular kind again as there's only one of each of those two.

 

[The Dark Elf]

Wow, somebody's gonna sleep well tonight

I'm trying to get an affordable tablet.. Probably Intuos 2 or something, I'm not sure though.

I'd definately recommend an Intuos. If you can do without the extras on the intuos3, definately get an intuos2. There's likely very little difference between them other than the touchpad and extra buttons. I doubt very much that the tablets accuracy is even noticable between the two unless you do really really accurate CAD stuff. So other than small changes I think its really the same tablet, just looks different and a different number.

If your serious about it though, get an A4, feels so much better than A5, and as Evil said, when you consider the price of all the traditional gear you'd need to do what you can do in Photoshop or Painter. your saving hundreds... and you get to undo mistakes too lol

 

[CR0M]

Not sure about the other nibs, i've always used the bog standard nylon things.

And I'm an A5 man, the bigger tablets mean more precision but also further arm travel and I'm just too damn lazy for that.

 

[The Dark Elf]

Not sure about the other nibs, i've always used the bog standard nylon things.

And I'm an A5 man, the bigger tablets mean more precision but also further arm travel and I'm just too damn lazy for that.

Heh yeah. Took me a while to get used to having the extra space (A5 before this one) I'm more used to bigger sizes from airbrushing/painting normally, since I can't do that atall on a smaller scale, especially the airbrushing part.

I'll say this though, the bigger size does prevent my wrist from hurting as much.

*waits for countless hurting wrist jokes from everyone*

 

[Varg|Hund]

/me is being ignored by Fen-Elf

 

[The Dark Elf]

/me is being ignored by Fen-Elf

Your not being ignored

Besides CROM has owned one of these for a while, its good to talk to him, he'll know things about them that I wont.

As for your question.. mate, its old, it barely works, by the time we've messed about sending it to sweden, it'll be cheaper for you to buy a graphire3 and they are much better than my old one. Heck the old one for a short time could be bought at ASDA/Walmart.

 

[CR0M]

varg|hund, graphires are great for home sketching use, and they're pretty cheap, but if you want a pro tablet use an intuos. Have to bear in mind they take some getting used to, you can't just pick one up and use it straight off if you've always used just a mouse - takes patience.