What to Look for in Digital Art Tablet?

Hi guys, I’m not sure if this is the right area to post this, but I’ll give it a shot. As I’ve been continually learning the ropes of 3D art I’ve read several times that digital art tablets are a real help, and I’m thinking I might try and find one.

What I could use is some help in identifying the good/bad properties of tablets that I should look out for, or even suggesting specific tablets. Keep in mind that I’m by no means an expert in 3D yet, so I might not be able to follow if you lay into the heavier technical jargon. :wink: At this point all I really know is that I’m not going for anything high-end, but it doesn’t mean I’m going for the cheapest dirt I can find either, just something price-worthy that I could find useful.

Also, if anyone has any links or help as to how you could best incorporate tablets into the 3D process, that would be appreciated. :slight_smile:

Thanks in advance!

Wacom is industry standard for a good reason, and likely the best advice is ‘get a wacom’. For one, they don’t require batteries, are well suported and are sturdy.

You can look for reviews for other brands, Monoprice is very well liked, for one.

some people are happy to use their tablet for the whole 3d process, i am generally only comfortable using the tablet for sculpting and texture painting in blender. you will need a tablet size that you are comfortable with i guess. though, mine is a 6"x4" drawing area and that covers two monitors, so a 3"x4" drawing area, which i have no trouble drawing and sculpting with. so if you have the cash then a nice wacom intuos for £10,000,000,000 would be a good buy, especially if your going to work profesionally. or just a little Bamboo for £40 off ebay will work just as well. all you need to be certain of is that the tablet is pressure sensitive. some cheap ones arn’t and they are not much use for art work, being little more than expensive mice!

Alright, thanks for the responses. :slight_smile:

I had a look at the wacom website and found these two: http://www.wacom.com/en/de/creative/intuos-s and http://www.wacom.com/en/de/creative/intuos-pen

The only differences between them (apart from price) are that one has a pen without eraser and no touch screen capabilities, while the other has both. Which would you recommend?

Eraser seems like it’d be pretty good to have, but I’m not sure about touch screen. While it could be great it seems like it might also easily get disturbed if you have your hand on the tablet while drawing, I don’t know. What do you think?

The most important thing to consider, I would argue, is the size. Think about how you draw when you use a pencil. if you keep your hand planted on the paper and use your fingers, you’ll be lost in the expanse of an A4 tablet, and not use all the surface as well as you might with something smaller. Likewise, if you draw using your elbow more, an A6 tablet will be frustratingly limited and too fiddly to use as well as you might.

Yes, DPI, pressure levels, tilt & rotate all add to the device, but if it is the wrong size, no amount of whistles and bells will make up for working at an uncomfortable scale.

an eraser is a bit gimmicky as you can easily assign the programs eraser to a hotkey on the tablet, or just select the eraser from the programs tool menu. touch screens well maybe they have their uses but i doubt you would use it. i’m not sure how they work but from what i remember reading touch and pen are independent functions so if your using the pen, touching the tablet wont have any effect and vice versa

Good point Ummma, I do use my hand primarily so the smaller size would probably be best. My deskspace isn’t that large either.

Touch screen sounds okay if it’s the way you describe it, Small Troll. I think I might go for that one in that case. It sounds like a good introductory tablet.

And man, I looked at some of the high end tablets, wow. They’re huge, and look like fun, haha :smiley: Having a real display on it would be ideal too but the price shoots up pretty quick. If anything they could be future purchases!

The touch feature is for gestures.

The eraser is good for separate settings like softer pressure than tip or a different function like double-click. Some apps like Painter let you assign brushes to it. Can save some wear on your nibs. You can do fast one-handed switch to eraser and back if you learn to spin. You can sketch and erase while holding a beer.

Demo of touch gestures

Eraser other settings and functions

Pen spin -first part of this is useful. The rest is for showing off.

-LP

i would recommend this one,i have the 40days try at home:


http://eu.shop.wacom.eu/products/cintiq/cintiq-companion-hybrid/cintiq-companion-hybrid/566?c=70177

its a good deal, otherwise the windows8 wich is more expensive, comes with an ssd disk: http://eu.shop.wacom.eu/products/others/cintiq-companion/567?c=70177

but you can install any software, like a normal OS, imagine you sculpt, sketch in it, outside and then continue at home.

But about the power there is a review from daarken, a concept artist, a test with blender, gimp, krita, mypaint would be welcome.

I absolutely agree! I’ve had the Cintiq Companion (Intel version with win8) for less than a week and I haven’t been able to put it down. It’s expensive but absolutely worth it! In addition to the express keys and rocker ring, the customizable touch overlay buttons/sliders and radial menu goes a long way towards keyboardless workflow. I’ve managed to cram in all my zbrush hotkeys using this and have no need for a keyboard there. Blender however isn’t the most efficient when it comes to optimizing keyboard shortcuts as zbrush, but I’ve been able to fit the most critical functions.

I highly recommend it, especially for sculpting.
the only downside to the windows version is that it doesn’t have the option of slaving to a PC as the android hybrid does, so in a few years time it will become obsolete unless I open it up and do some serious modding (probably will)

The Cintiq is probably a little bit overkill for a first tablet though. Unless you are really serious and you are planning to jump directly into the professional world I would recommend starting out with a smaller/cheaper tablet to get used to the feel first. I personally have a little Wacom Bamboo tablet that I absolutely love. I’ve heard people recommend Monoprice tablets as well if you want one that’s a bit larger for a cheap price.

Only in the same sense that two button mice are gimmicky compared to one button, or three button to two, etc. Eraser is very useful as a secondary tool you can switch to by flipping the stylus [does not have to be the erase function - can be set to whatever the developer wants].

I have intuos5 with touch, and I think having touch as a separate device is better - so you can use both at the same time. Imagine rotating your object whilst sculpting a pattern with the stylus. Also Wacom drivers \ hardware does not have the same intuitive feeling of multi-gestures as the built-in Apple stuff. The bamboo pen and touch was awkward, even in comparison to the tiny trackpad on the Apple Magic Mouse. Thus proving once and for all that Apple is superior and Nintendo makes the most fun games.

Other things to consider:

Drivers - lots of the cheaper tablets have problems with different versions of Windows, or no OSX \ Linux, support, or reduced functionality on different operating systems. Even Wacom had problems with their drivers and Windows 8, forcing Windows users to go back to Windows 7 [if that was an option] - something that did not affect OSX. No PPC drivers. heh

Battery - Wacom stylus’ are generally battery-free. Except their new capacitive tablet styli. Batteries make the stylus heavier and may be uncomfortable for longer use. They need changing, which could disrupt and annoy. Some tablet manufacturers try to get past this by using styli with rechargeable batteries.

Cool Factor - speaks for itself.

Moved from “General Forums > Blender and CG Discussons” to “Support > Technical Support”

I have the Intuos Wireless and it’s pretty damned good. If I could afford it, I’d be getting the Android Cintiq tablet thing they brought out. A few folks I respect have mentioned how good it is and, well, I like the idea of taking ONLY the tablet with me for sketching (pls don’t talk to me about using an iPad or Samsung tablet for this purpose - I’ve got them, tried them, and found them woefully lacking).

@Pepperjack: I’m in the same boat, just starting out but serious enough to invest in a tablet. I think I am going to get the Wacom Bamboo tablet after reading and watching various reviews. And maybe someday I’ll get one of those right fancy Cintiq tablets when I win the lottery :slight_smile: