MMM, the smell of fresh electonics...
Anyway, it's been many, many years since I bought my last tablet, the Intuos 2. It is really worn out, so I decided to get a new one. The surface was worn out. I had to turn the screen upside down as you can see in the pic below. I could not find any replacement screens, and I wanted a newer model anyway.
I debated on getting a tablet or a Cintiq, but ended up with another tablet. I decided on the tablet because they are comfortable to use, my hand won't block the screen, I don't have to worry about differences in color calibrations, I don't have to worry about viewing angles or hunching over to see a screen, and just overall it's what I think I would feel most comfortable with. I like being able to use my 23" monitor. I can rest the tablet on my lap and lean back while I draw. I may try a Cintiq later, but I just see no need for it. I've heard that plenty of artists that have used one prefer a tablet for some things and just use the Cintiq for drawing since it's more intuitive, but then switch back to the tablet. I can draw just fine on my tablet. And for that price, I don't feel like experimenting. Anyway, let's move on.
I decided to get a large this time. I had been using a medium forever. I believe the first one I ever got was a small, but that was waaay back in the day. I must say that the large is great. It feels like drawing in a typical 9x12" sketchbook with pencil. I had no trouble adjusting to the new size. I picked it up right away and was able to sketch and trace just fine.
I was going to get a large tablet a long time ago, but got scared off when people starting talking about using your arm more than your wrist, and I'm a mainly "wrist" artist. However, I don't find that to be the case. Unless you are making lines that go all the way across the canvas, most strokes do not require arm movement. You'll have to reposition your hand more since you have more working space, but this is hardly a problem. The extra room gives you more freedom to make expressive strokes, and it feels more like doing actual art than plinking away at a small space like in smaller tablets. I find the movements quite natural.
Zooming in will require larger strokes, but even still I only work on a small part at a time usually. Not everything will fill the entire canvas, so I really don't feel much different than when I was using the smaller medium size tablet. Resting the tablet on my lap reminds me of when I used a drawing board for my pencil drawings, so it feels fine.
Here is a comparison between my Intuos Pro Large, and my old Intuos 2 medium.
As you can see, it's a bit bigger. The aspect ratio has changed a bit too to make it better fit a widescreen monitor. The pen has changed too. I put a white ring on it to make it easier to see against the mountain of black when drawing. The borders of the active part of the tablet are lit up. It has wireless abilities, but I haven't tried it yet and probably won't use it much to be honest. I ended up paying about $424 for it, which seems like a good deal since I can't find it for that price anymore.
The surface is a bit more tactile. It has more texture, but is still smooth. The old one now feels slippery in comparison. This may cause faster nib wear, but I turn down the max sensitivity anyway since pressing hard wears me out after a while. So, it should not be a problem. It definitely feels better, I'll say that.
It's got "touch" abilities as well. You can pinch the tablet with your fingers to zoom in and out just like a smartphone. It supports some other commands as well that I'll get into soon. The buttons on the left are also touch sensitive. If you rest your finger on them, it brings up a menu on screen saying what each button does. You can also press them like normal buttons. I kinda wish they either lit up individually or had a different color to make them easier to see in a darkened room.
Okay, so onto actual testing.
Photoshop
I don't use photoshop for much "drawing" these days since I have other programs. The pen works fine though. I could not get the radial wheel to zoom in and out, so I set it to a custom command for photoshop to simulate button press of ctrl++ and ctrl+- and it works basically the same. I don't think the touch features work in photoshop, but I didn't test them much. I mostly use photoshop for color/exposure correction and layer effects anyway.
I'll be using Photoshop for the HUD elements and other miscellaneous things in my upcoming game.
Corel Painter X3
Alright, here we go, a more suited program. Painter is great for its brushes. It also has a lot of support for the tablet. I can rotate the image with the touch feature, for example. I set up a custom button on the tablet to quickly reset the rotation to 0. Other buttons are things like ctrl+s and ctrl+z for saving and undoing, and other common functions. I also assigned ctrl+alt+0 to quickly zoom to actual size. The radial wheels zooms in and out and works properly this time. I rarely need to use an actual keyboard.
I set up the two buttons on the pen as well. The lower button is the "alt" key so I can quickly resample colors from the image and paint back and forth. The upper button is the spacebar key command so I can pan around the image when needed.
I'll be using Painter for the landscape/environment art in my upcoming game and also for any title screen/promotional/whatever art.
Manga Studio 5
Here is a hidden gem that few people know about. I picked this up for like 20 bucks, and it's one of my favorite programs. It has nice painting features, and some other features similar to Painter like the perspective tools. It also comes with a male/female 3d model that can be posed and modified for reference. I personally love that feature since I like having a model so I can test a pose before drawing it. It will also help with my character animations for my upcoming game. It doesn't support animations directly, but I can use the models and multiple layers with guide lines to set up each animation frame and import each into the game.
The pen tablet works just fine here, though I only tested it for simple things.
I'll be using Manga Studio 5 for my character art and animations in my upcoming game.
Final thoughts
I'm very happy with this tablet so far. Like I said, I had reservations about getting a large, but I quite like it so far. It feels very natural to someone who is using to actual drawing and painting.
Now that I have all my equipment set up, I can get back to work. I hope to have a screenshot of my game ready within a month, though it won't be released for a few months still. I posted some details about the game in the indie developer thread here in the OTL where ever that went off to.
Anyway, let me know if you have any questions or whatnot.
Anyway, it's been many, many years since I bought my last tablet, the Intuos 2. It is really worn out, so I decided to get a new one. The surface was worn out. I had to turn the screen upside down as you can see in the pic below. I could not find any replacement screens, and I wanted a newer model anyway.
I debated on getting a tablet or a Cintiq, but ended up with another tablet. I decided on the tablet because they are comfortable to use, my hand won't block the screen, I don't have to worry about differences in color calibrations, I don't have to worry about viewing angles or hunching over to see a screen, and just overall it's what I think I would feel most comfortable with. I like being able to use my 23" monitor. I can rest the tablet on my lap and lean back while I draw. I may try a Cintiq later, but I just see no need for it. I've heard that plenty of artists that have used one prefer a tablet for some things and just use the Cintiq for drawing since it's more intuitive, but then switch back to the tablet. I can draw just fine on my tablet. And for that price, I don't feel like experimenting. Anyway, let's move on.
I decided to get a large this time. I had been using a medium forever. I believe the first one I ever got was a small, but that was waaay back in the day. I must say that the large is great. It feels like drawing in a typical 9x12" sketchbook with pencil. I had no trouble adjusting to the new size. I picked it up right away and was able to sketch and trace just fine.
I was going to get a large tablet a long time ago, but got scared off when people starting talking about using your arm more than your wrist, and I'm a mainly "wrist" artist. However, I don't find that to be the case. Unless you are making lines that go all the way across the canvas, most strokes do not require arm movement. You'll have to reposition your hand more since you have more working space, but this is hardly a problem. The extra room gives you more freedom to make expressive strokes, and it feels more like doing actual art than plinking away at a small space like in smaller tablets. I find the movements quite natural.
Zooming in will require larger strokes, but even still I only work on a small part at a time usually. Not everything will fill the entire canvas, so I really don't feel much different than when I was using the smaller medium size tablet. Resting the tablet on my lap reminds me of when I used a drawing board for my pencil drawings, so it feels fine.
Here is a comparison between my Intuos Pro Large, and my old Intuos 2 medium.
As you can see, it's a bit bigger. The aspect ratio has changed a bit too to make it better fit a widescreen monitor. The pen has changed too. I put a white ring on it to make it easier to see against the mountain of black when drawing. The borders of the active part of the tablet are lit up. It has wireless abilities, but I haven't tried it yet and probably won't use it much to be honest. I ended up paying about $424 for it, which seems like a good deal since I can't find it for that price anymore.
The surface is a bit more tactile. It has more texture, but is still smooth. The old one now feels slippery in comparison. This may cause faster nib wear, but I turn down the max sensitivity anyway since pressing hard wears me out after a while. So, it should not be a problem. It definitely feels better, I'll say that.
It's got "touch" abilities as well. You can pinch the tablet with your fingers to zoom in and out just like a smartphone. It supports some other commands as well that I'll get into soon. The buttons on the left are also touch sensitive. If you rest your finger on them, it brings up a menu on screen saying what each button does. You can also press them like normal buttons. I kinda wish they either lit up individually or had a different color to make them easier to see in a darkened room.
Okay, so onto actual testing.
Photoshop
I don't use photoshop for much "drawing" these days since I have other programs. The pen works fine though. I could not get the radial wheel to zoom in and out, so I set it to a custom command for photoshop to simulate button press of ctrl++ and ctrl+- and it works basically the same. I don't think the touch features work in photoshop, but I didn't test them much. I mostly use photoshop for color/exposure correction and layer effects anyway.
I'll be using Photoshop for the HUD elements and other miscellaneous things in my upcoming game.
Corel Painter X3
Alright, here we go, a more suited program. Painter is great for its brushes. It also has a lot of support for the tablet. I can rotate the image with the touch feature, for example. I set up a custom button on the tablet to quickly reset the rotation to 0. Other buttons are things like ctrl+s and ctrl+z for saving and undoing, and other common functions. I also assigned ctrl+alt+0 to quickly zoom to actual size. The radial wheels zooms in and out and works properly this time. I rarely need to use an actual keyboard.
I set up the two buttons on the pen as well. The lower button is the "alt" key so I can quickly resample colors from the image and paint back and forth. The upper button is the spacebar key command so I can pan around the image when needed.
I'll be using Painter for the landscape/environment art in my upcoming game and also for any title screen/promotional/whatever art.
Manga Studio 5
Here is a hidden gem that few people know about. I picked this up for like 20 bucks, and it's one of my favorite programs. It has nice painting features, and some other features similar to Painter like the perspective tools. It also comes with a male/female 3d model that can be posed and modified for reference. I personally love that feature since I like having a model so I can test a pose before drawing it. It will also help with my character animations for my upcoming game. It doesn't support animations directly, but I can use the models and multiple layers with guide lines to set up each animation frame and import each into the game.
The pen tablet works just fine here, though I only tested it for simple things.
I'll be using Manga Studio 5 for my character art and animations in my upcoming game.
Final thoughts
I'm very happy with this tablet so far. Like I said, I had reservations about getting a large, but I quite like it so far. It feels very natural to someone who is using to actual drawing and painting.
Now that I have all my equipment set up, I can get back to work. I hope to have a screenshot of my game ready within a month, though it won't be released for a few months still. I posted some details about the game in the indie developer thread here in the OTL where ever that went off to.
Anyway, let me know if you have any questions or whatnot.
