I would only like to hear the opinion from people who has had 2 or more different drawing boards throughout their life, so i know they have experience using them.
but basically, im looking for a drawing board that is cheap and easy for beginners, but also suits well for professional use. im going to study 3D and animation for two years starting in august, and we will also be learning texture design and sculpting. pluss i need the drawing board for animation referance, you know, baloon figures
Fair price
Easy for beginners
Translates well into professional use
Flexible programmable buttons on the pen is also a bonus, but not essential.
I don’t know what is the situation right now, but few years back Wacom was the only option. They’re like the Apple of drawing board manufacturers: costs a little bit more, but works like charm. I have Bamboo, it’s actually good enough if you don’t need tilting of the pen, it’s Wacom’s beginner model.
I had a drawing board from “Trust” that lost it’s drivers support on the after windows xp(it worked for about a year) it was crappy too(don’t trust Trust).
It had a transparent layer so you could lift it and put a picture underneath it.
not only it was useless it got old and wrinkly pretty fast so that’s a “feature” you should stay away from.
That’s when I learned my lesson get a decent drawing board from the decent manufacturer
I bought a wacom bamboo(cth 670) and i’m happy with it many of my friends have the more advanced ones and they’re good too
remember you need nibs too so choosing a manufacturer is important
If I remember correct the intous pro has an option for replaceable pens(you can use an airbrush etc…) so that’s something to consider you don’t replace your drawing board so often so get one that’ll last for a few years.
You have to be a bit careful now with the names of these tablets because Wacom confusingly changed things about. The Bamboo is now an entry level tablet that is suitable for handwriting capture etc but not for drawing or sculpting. The old Bamboo line is now called Intuos and the old Intuos line is now called Intuos Pro.
Intuos and Intuos Pro are the tablet that you should be looking at.
I personally have the old Bamboo and will be upgrading to an Intuos Pro by the end of this year the are fantastic tablets and the are really sturdy I haven’t had a single hiccup with my current tablet.
I’ve been using my Intuos 3 for years now without any real hiccups. If you want one that works without any issues, then you should probably be looking into a Wacom.
yeah me too, i own an intuos (the new bamboo’s) acquired about 6 months ago, an wireless intuos 4 medium size, and a cintiq 12HD, and they all are fantastic, i highly recommend an intuos pro from medium size and up.
I had a genius before, and it sucked ass.
if it has to be good but not too expensive a Wacom Intuos.
the ultimate tool would be i think a highress touch screen/monitors,
i’ve used them a few times but those are way to expensive. (adds an extra zero to the Wacom price range)
in the beginning you got to get used to the idea that your pen output is not under your fingers, but at the screen.
but after a while you get used to that, they are also very handy for photoshopping with whatever program you use for it, its not only handy for sculpting or texture painting in Blener. If your into graphics a lot of the time, you wont regret a decent computer drawing tool.
When i got one i first thought of it is a slightly expensive self present, but looking back how often i’ve used and how much time it saved me, and how natural lines become, i dont regret it. If i do a photoshoot, i quickly go trough them and adjust them with my pen, a pretty common todo for me now these days.
I know a few concept-/storyboard-artists and animators who used these, but I think the Cintiq is more used now. If you are talking about a tablet, then go with a Wacom. Depending on how much you want to go into painting textures or concept art, you don’t need to buy an Intous Pro. I personally use the stylus primarily as a simple input device, so I don’t take advantage of the precision and tilt as much, even if I use a Intous 4/5 daily, I’d probably choose an Intous Medium (previously Bamboo) today, if the pen is as nice as the Pro one. If you choose to go with the Intous Pro, good for you, using a tablet is easy to get dependent on so you’ll be glad for the investment.
Despite the fact that it’s very under-rated and almost unknown model, I consider it’s cost/performance ratio a big win. The company kept updating the drivers and provide support through all these years.
Before that I had a Bamboo One Wacom model and I was very frustrated with it. A small surface won’t allow you expressive moves and restrain you, and also from technical side having less DPI to work with, will result to a hell of jittering and jiggling that will totally ruin your experience.
However this Trust tablet produces super smooth lines, even in MSPaint the results are superb, not a single jittering at all. Considering other software like Krita that use stabilizing technology, it will only help you to work easier, but indeed there are no flaws of the device at all so either you work with stabilizer or not it does not matter.
If anyone is interested I can upload sample pictures.
I’ve been using my Intuos 3 Medium for going on 7 years now, still works like day 1 and I’ve been very happy with it. I wouldn’t recommend the smaller tablets, or the jumbo ones either, I personally like the Medium size since it’s very similar in feel to drawing on a piece of paper. I’m looking to upgrade to a Cintiq Companion 2 here soon, but that’s a lot more expensive
I liked it and it worked pretty damn well. As someone who has used both this and has an Intuos 5 I can say that the only real difference is that the intuos models have a softer surface and the pens have a tilt function. The tilt function is useful for painting and stuff but can be ignored for 3D work such as sculpting or just regular old modelling. For the price the Huion tablets are really worth it.
Looks good and has way more buttons. Apparently the surface has been updated so maybe it feels a bit better.
You can check out their Cintiq versions and stuff as well. Way more affordable than Wacom and from what I bought they feel solid rather than cheap plastic.
[bit OT] I don’t understand the love for the Cintiq range of Wacom products. I’ve used Wacom tablets for well over a decade and occasionally try Cintiqs. A graphic tablet and a separate monitor solved the problem that an artist’s hand always obscures a decent amount of the local drawing area. Cintiqs bing that problem back (??!)
Anyways…
Try a Wacom Bamboo for around $100, I have the touch version and It works great! But if you’re serious, an intuos would be the Wacom series to look at.
A high end intuos and a bigish/highres screen that has a good response time is the way to go imo. Plenty of gaming 1440p monitors out there that would be perfect. I’m still waiting on cheaper 4k with better response times.
Won’t lie though, a big-*** Cintiq would be super cool and I’d use it if I had it.
