Page 1 of 2 12 LastLast
Results 1 to 10 of 15

Thread: Tablet talk

  1. #1
    Guild Journeyer Alecthar's Avatar
    Join Date
    Apr 2009
    Location
    Deutschland
    Posts
    102

    Question Tablet talk

    I've been considering purchasing a tablet to expand my mapping possibilities, particularly by making doing some cool hand-drawn type stuff a little easier. I'm really looking for something introductory, just to do some cool elements, draw in a few things, and work a little bit of calligraphy.

    Looking at the Wacom site I noticed the Bamboo tablets seem to be fairly reasonable, but I'm curious about people's opinions. I'm trying to keep the price sub $200. Should I not even bother?
    "Unless I'm allowed to carry around a gun to shoot their giant killer-spiders, Australia needs to stay the hell away from me. Also Australians, who if they have lived this long are obviously agents of the spiders and not to be trusted."

  2. #2
    Community Leader jfrazierjr's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2007
    Location
    Apex, NC USA
    Posts
    3,057

    Post

    Quote Originally Posted by Alecthar View Post
    I've been considering purchasing a tablet to expand my mapping possibilities, particularly by making doing some cool hand-drawn type stuff a little easier. I'm really looking for something introductory, just to do some cool elements, draw in a few things, and work a little bit of calligraphy.

    Looking at the Wacom site I noticed the Bamboo tablets seem to be fairly reasonable, but I'm curious about people's opinions. I'm trying to keep the price sub $200. Should I not even bother?
    I have the Bamboo Fun Medium ($199) and love it. Until I feel the need to have more features, I am more than happy with my Bamboo. It's also a good size to put into a backpack to take with my laptop.
    My Finished Maps
    Works in Progress(or abandoned tests)
    My Tutorials:
    Explanation of Layer Masks in GIMP
    How to create ISO Mountains in GIMP/PS using the Smudge tool
    ----------------------------------------------------------
    Unless otherwise stated by me in the post, all work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.

  3. #3
    Community Leader Facebook Connected Ascension's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2008
    Location
    St. Charles, Missouri, United States
    Posts
    8,392

    Post

    Tablets are great fun. I always do my rivers with mine. I also do a lot of burn/dodge with it on things like mountains. Look at some of the stuff Torstan does on his (envy) not to mention Aerius and TheRedEpic and other pros...heck there are tons of us using one and I can't remember them all. It makes doing hand-drawn mountains and forests a snap. Check over on E-Bay to see if someone is selling one for cheap, there usually are quite a few there.
    Last edited by Ascension; 06-09-2009 at 02:59 AM.
    If the radiance of a thousand suns was to burst at once into the sky, that would be like the splendor of the Mighty One...I am become Death, the Shatterer of worlds.
    -J. Robert Oppenheimer (father of the atom bomb) alluding to The Bhagavad Gita (Chapter 11, Verse 32)


    My Maps ~ My Brushes ~ My Tutorials ~ My Challenge Maps

  4. #4
    Guild Member Absinth's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2008
    Location
    Hamburg, Germany; Europe, Earth
    Posts
    89

    Post

    I can only recommend getting the Bamboo. I wouldn't want to miss mine and never found it necessary to buy a more advanced tablet. Sure, a Cintiq is really cool, but the Bamboo provides everything I'm expecting a tablet to offer. A Wacom Bmboo is money well spent in my opinion.

  5. #5
    Guild Member
    Join Date
    Apr 2009
    Location
    A Coruña, Galicia, Spain
    Posts
    93

    Default

    I have a Bamboo Fun Medium too, and I have to agree: it's very good for the price. If you are not a pro, you won't even notice the "limitations" that it has compared to the higher models (i.e., the Intuos series).

  6. #6
    Guild Journeyer Alecthar's Avatar
    Join Date
    Apr 2009
    Location
    Deutschland
    Posts
    102

    Post

    Music to my ears. Well, eyes, you know what I mean. Looks like a tablet's going on order along with my new computer parts. Yay!
    "Unless I'm allowed to carry around a gun to shoot their giant killer-spiders, Australia needs to stay the hell away from me. Also Australians, who if they have lived this long are obviously agents of the spiders and not to be trusted."

  7. #7
    Community Leader Facebook Connected torstan's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2007
    Posts
    4,199

    Post

    You certainly won't regret it.

  8. #8
    Community Leader Facebook Connected Ascension's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2008
    Location
    St. Charles, Missouri, United States
    Posts
    8,392

    Post

    Just one lil bit of advice...you will get frustrated right at first but don't give up. It takes some time to get accustomed to how it works since it's not quite like drawing with a pencil. Some have more sensitivity and they all have this kind of "floating" thing that can be annoying until you get used to it. The best thing I recommend is to actually draw a few things with it and learn to click all of the various buttons on the screen with the pen instead of reverting back to the mouse. The more you force yourself to use it the more you will learn it and the more fun you will have with it. Once you've gotten fairly used to it then go back and look into adjusting the settings to make it behave like you want it to.
    If the radiance of a thousand suns was to burst at once into the sky, that would be like the splendor of the Mighty One...I am become Death, the Shatterer of worlds.
    -J. Robert Oppenheimer (father of the atom bomb) alluding to The Bhagavad Gita (Chapter 11, Verse 32)


    My Maps ~ My Brushes ~ My Tutorials ~ My Challenge Maps

  9. #9
    Community Leader jfrazierjr's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2007
    Location
    Apex, NC USA
    Posts
    3,057

    Post

    Quote Originally Posted by Ascension View Post
    Just one lil bit of advice...you will get frustrated right at first but don't give up. It takes some time to get accustomed to how it works since it's not quite like drawing with a pencil. Some have more sensitivity and they all have this kind of "floating" thing that can be annoying until you get used to it. The best thing I recommend is to actually draw a few things with it and learn to click all of the various buttons on the screen with the pen instead of reverting back to the mouse. The more you force yourself to use it the more you will learn it and the more fun you will have with it. Once you've gotten fairly used to it then go back and look into adjusting the settings to make it behave like you want it to.

    I will follow up on this... DO NOT mix using the mouse and the tablet.. you will mess your image up. See, when you select a tool, GIMP knows which device you used to select it, either pen tip 1, pen tip 2, or mouse. So if you click on a tool with the mouse and then pick up the pen and start drawing, you won't have the tool you think you have selected and that will just waste your time and drive you crazy...(or perhaps your not as neurotic as I am and you'll be ok....)
    My Finished Maps
    Works in Progress(or abandoned tests)
    My Tutorials:
    Explanation of Layer Masks in GIMP
    How to create ISO Mountains in GIMP/PS using the Smudge tool
    ----------------------------------------------------------
    Unless otherwise stated by me in the post, all work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.

  10. #10
    Guild Journeyer
    Join Date
    May 2008
    Location
    PEI, Canada
    Posts
    213

    Default

    I keep meaning to look up how to disable that 'feature' in GIMP. It gets really annoying when I'm trying to work as I do in photoshop with it, image full screen on Monitor A, tools and such on Monitor B,... Meaning if I don't remember the short cut, I have to select with the mouse.

    Of course the whole issue can be solved with the professional line of tools that lets you bind a button to switch screens, but sadly I can't justify the cost right now. (Paintball gear needs replacing.)

Page 1 of 2 12 LastLast

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •