Graphics Tablets advice

[TheYak]

just got a tablet.. a wacom graphire 2.  Kinda trying out a mid-range before committing to an expensive Intuos model.

Anyway, anyone have any special tablet-advice for me?  What progs work well with it?  How can a get the most natural sketch/pen stroke?  

And since this is critic's lounge, here's something to bitch about:

[Miez]

Tres cool picture, and congrats with the new tablet! Painter is supposed to be really cool with tablets (isn't it bundled with your Wacom?), especially for your style of drawing (i.e. natural, handdrawn stuff).

[MachineElf]

Yeah, Painter is what to aim for although most advanced programs nowadays have quite good support for tablets.
If you want free software I've heard Pixia is good with tablets as well.

[Minimi]

hey, are there any tutorials for learning working with this, because im seriously bad at it. These are my skills : !!!

[Neole]

I cant get anywhere near the control I did with pen on paper with my Wacom Intuos 2. So I think I'll stick to sketching on paper scanning and coloring with wacom. Only the tablet makes me too lazy to scan..

[Minimi]

woohoo im starting to learn using my tablet and photoshop! Not great still, but if you compare it to the one also on this page


I call this one the twin trees... the trees are the towers and the birds are the planes! Hope your not offended by this

[OneThinkingGal and ._.]

Hm ._. here's the thing that seems to help most. Use the wacom control panel(should be in programs menu) and customise the movement of the pen and the tip feel. Turn off the acceleration and make the pen move slower.

You should keep clicking Apply in the wacom control panel while seeing if the strokes turn out ok in PS or whichever app you are customising it for.  Once you're done, click ok. That works better than loading the panel over and over again(yes I know its stating hte obvious )

Aside from that, if you're using PS7,  the brush has settings to let you vary opacity by pressure,  roundness by pressure and so on. Check out the settings for the brush.

[Minimi]

what is best? Should I be putting the pressure high or low of the pen?
I have bytheway an "Trust tablet 200" ! I actually dont know if its any good

[OneThinkingGal and ._.]

Doesn't it have something like auto-caliberate? It lets you draw strokes and sets pressure accordingly. I just use that. If the program has one built in, I use that as well.

[scotch]

* scotch would kill for an Intuos 2

I've lost my wacom pen :'( it's like a member of the family dying.

[Minimi]

well if you mean this... i can press harder on the pen and then the stroke gets more hard... fuller of colour and bigger in size...  dunno furthermore much about the tablet... only that i just got it, and that i wanna learn to use it real good and draw some awesome stuff for my adventure games

btw... i like wacky pictures... happy... and stuff... with lots of nature like trees and water and sunny

[Ginny]

Great drawings!

Damn, now I really want a wacom tablet. How much does it cost?

[scotch]

Depends on how good you awnt it to be.  Probably around $100 for a basic but good one like mine.

[Minimi]

At this url you can find the same tablet as me :
http://www.trust.com/products/productgrp.htm?grp=TABLET

It's about 80 dollar maybee less, at the moment... i think you can have one for 60

[Ginny]

At this url you can find the same tablet as me :
http://www.trust.com/products/productgrp.htm?grp=TABLET

It's about 80 dollar maybee less, at the moment... i think you can have one for 60

Thanks, unfortunately my "nearest dealer" for the company is in Greece, and I live in Israel...
So not really possible (unless I can order online? I didn't see an option, though there's an option to register).
Thanks anyway. hmm 60-80$ is ok I guess. That's about 240-320 shekels, a little less since the dollar is dropping here. It's a bit expensive even though I have 2000 shekels (approx. 500$), since it's just for fun, but I'll see, maybe I can find it cheaper, I don't need a really good one, I might get a proffesional one if I see that my kills improve, maybe when I'm grown up.

Just to get the feel of it, how do you basically use a tablet?

[Minimi]

well uoi have a tablet and a pen. the place where the pen is on the board is sorta your mousepointer. So it's actually a mouse.

I just made a new image in with my tablet and im really starting to enjoy this


soo.. maybee you can borrow one??

[scotch]

Yeah and if it's a decent one you'll be able to control things like opacity or brush size or colour with the pressure you're applying.  It takes a little getting used to, but once you're used to it you'll never want to draw with a mouse again.

[aussie]

Just a more general question on tablets.

I have one of those WACOM ones. I've trying to trace stuff by putting my paper drawing on the tablet and tracing over it.

But I have a problem. In order to draw a whole background for a game (640x400 pixels), say, I would have to have it drawn in 7x6cm on paper, which I reckon is too small for comfort.

How do you people get around this one?

[Minimi]

you can zoom in or out in your drawing program or you can draw it in parts, and work secure to let the parts flow over in eachother... look the elephant above shoulda been the whole one, but didnt fit either

[Xadhoom]

One of the most important things to remember about a digitizer is to realize that it takes quite a while to get used to! It took about three months for me to learn how to use it properly, but now it works like a song. Take your time, I can see you're already getting the hang of it.