[Sekai-Okami]

I was wanting to get a tablet so that I could enhance my art but I know next to nothing about them except for what they do. i was wondering if there was a specific type that was better than some others and what the prices were on them. I suppose it depends on the size. If anyone can help I'd really be greatful.

Sekai Okami

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[Jin]

Wacom tablets are the best.

The tablet sizes indicate the working area only and the entire tablet takes up more space.

6 x 8 inch tablets (again, the working area) are the most popular size. The 6 x 8 inch tablet frame takes up about 13 x 10 inches of space on the desktop. Larger tablets, of course, take up more space on the desktop adn I found that a 9 x 12 inch tablet was way too large to allow me to comfortably work with both my keyboard and tablet side by side.

Wacom Intuos tablets have 1024 levels of pressure sensitivity and support Tilt meaning the brushstroke is affected by the angle at which the stylus (pen) is held in relation to the tablet surface.

Wacom Graphire tablets have 512 levels of pressure sensitivity and do not support Tilt.

Graphires are fine for anyone on a budget and/or just beginning to do digital art. Lots of people use Graphires even when they've been doing digital art for a long time.

Take a look at all of the Wacom tablet models on the Wacom site:

http://www.wacom.com

If you are on a budget, check the Wacom refurbished tablet list. It changes frequently so check it often. To see the list, go to the Wacom America site, click Store at the top of the page, then click Refurbished Tablets on the left side of the page.

Be sure to buy a tablet with a USB connection since that's what todays computers use.


Good luck! You'll love using a tablet!




Jinny Brown

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[Mon]

What Jin said.

Just wanted to add that i couldn't recommend anyone to buy a tablet w�thout no tilt-response. If you're new to digital painting this might sound like bollocks, but I use tilit all the time, for every single piece i make, and it makes the process a million times better. Tilt is the shit. Get an intuos, used and from ebay if you have to. It's just that much better.

Best of luck to you
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[B0b]

can u explain how u use the tilt function Mon?

[Mon]

sure thing bob. Sorry about hijacking the thread



The basic thing with tilt is that you can get a much greater range of expression from a single brush. Just look at the spray-brush in this example. By leaning the stylus in 1a it looks like i'm actually spraying paint on the canvas at an angle. This is a great tool for modeling shapes, like the cylinder. You'd want a hard edge on one side and a soft on the other to get that sense of volume.

in 2a you can see the shape of the Variable Flat brush and how the brush rotates according to how you lean your stylus. Without tilt sensitivity the shape will stay a fixed oval no matter how you lean it (2b).

That's the basics of it. Photoshop has this function but it takes some tweaking to make good use of it. I for one can't live without it, it gives digital painting a whole extra dimension.

Hope this helps a little bit
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[balistic]

Personally I don't think tilt is essential for a beginner, although I do use it sometimes. If the choice was between a 6x8 Graphire with no tilt and a 4x5 Intuos with tilt, I would go for the Graphire with the bigger drawing area.
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brian.prince|light.comp.paint

[DaveyJJ]

Have to agree with ballistic on this one. For a beginner, I almost never recommend the (significantly) more expensive Intuos with tilt ... the Graphire is more than adequate for their needs usually.
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[M@.]

yeah, tilt rocks! great explanation from Mon. Gives greater freedom, and more personality in brushes. I also agree that 6*8 is pretty optimal.

[Mikko K]

Do you use tilt in PS as well? I know Painter and maybe Artrage uses it automatically, I think the brushes rotate when you roll the pen around it's axis etc.

I've never really used it in PS though. I think I didn't get good results with Angle jitter set to tilt when I tried it. Too bad I don't have my wacom at home, should start testing that feature to find out how useful it can be. My experience with tilt has been that it makes the pen function in a more complex manner that I didn't quite like when I tried it.

Any info how to really use it effectively in PS is appreciated!

[nafa]

Tilt will be extremely important if you ever want to use flat brushes. Using the Graphire (no tilt) and Painter, you will have to keep rotating the canvas to get the flat brush strokes in the correct direction.

On the other hand, a larger tablet will be very important if you expect to be using 2 monitors. A 6x8 will be quite cramp for mapping to the combined screen areas.

[Sekai-Okami]

Thanks for the help everyone ^^. Really appreciate it.

[saiko]

i've seen some people doing amezing stuffs using graphire only and some are coming up with crappy stuffs using intuos 3 and even cintiq! it all depends on the users skills

it's does not matter what ur using...it's how ur using it!

saiko