I only use it when doing precision art work. I tried using it with my sign software (Omega) but I still use the tracking ball mouse for most of the designing and general internet and computer use.
Here is waht you can do with a Wacom tablet and Corel PhotoPaint:
These horses started out as a photo that had been converted to clip art....looked very speckeled black and white.
I use the Wacome tablet to accurately airbrush and smudge the horses. This work took about 2 hours.
------------------ Draper The Signmaker Bloomington Illinois USA Get To A Letterhead Meet This Summer! See you there! 309-828-7110 drapersigns@hotmail.com Draper_Dave on mIRC chat
Posts: 2883 | From: Bloomington Illinois USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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Amy, We just got one of those Wacom Tablets. I've been playing with it a bit and it seems like it's gonna come in handy. The pressure senitive pen gives you some nice "thick and thin" strokes. CorelDraw will put what you draw straight into vector format, ready to weld. And you get a much more natural feel when "painting" in PhotoPaint. Well worth the $70.00 we paid. Have fun.
------------------ Joe Endicott Graphic Arts Gulf Breeze, FL joesign1@bellsouth.net
Posts: 681 | From: Virginia Beach, VA USA | Registered: Mar 1999
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I just got a Wacom at Comp USA that also has a wireless mouse for $99. It only took half an hour to get used to it, but I use it mostly in Photoshop - I'm still a mouser in Signlab. It has lots of customization features and a long cord, so I can lean back and get comfy.
------------------ Sonny Franks Atlanta
"Well done beats well said every time"
Posts: 4115 | From: Lilburn, GA USA | Registered: Feb 1999
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I've been using my Wacom 12" X 12" for the last five years. I use it more than a pencil & pare these days.
For freehand drawing I generally do a quick sketch on a piece of paper real rough. Then scan it and edit the piece in Photoshop combining other sketches as necessary. Then I take it to a great feeehand drawing program called Painter (now from Corel). There it is a cinch to draw or paint or airbrush or just about anything else you can imagine.
The drawing pad is real easy to use and take just a little getting used to.
Couldn't live without it these days.
Go for it!
-dan
------------------ Dan Sawatzky Sawatzky's Imagination Corporation Cultus Lake , British Columbia dan@imaginationcorporation.ca
posted
I have a 6 year old CalComp tablet. It doesn't get used much except for drawing in Fractal Painter. For designing in sign programs, the mouse seems to work for me. Dan, what version of Painter are you using? I have 4 and wonder if I should uprgrade.
------------------ Wright Signs Wyandotte, Michigan Since 1978 www.wrightsigns.bigstep.com All change isn't progress, and all progress isn't forward.
Posts: 2785 | From: Wyandotte, MI USA | Registered: Jan 1999
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i have a calcomp drawing slate II. i've had it for a couple years and love it. i use it instead of a mouse.
originally, i bought a 4"x5" and had problems with it. it didn't work properly with windows 98. calcomp sent me a 6"x9" at no charge and it's worked fine up til this week.
i'm having some problems with it now (the last couple days), but, the techs have been very prompt about responding and i have no worries about repair.
if i do have unfixable problems, i will replace it. i'd never go back to a mouse.
posted
I have a Wacom Intuos and I love it to death.
One note about sizes though.. I dont know how you like to work, but I like to do work with as little hand/arm movement as possible. It's just so inefficient when ya gotta move yer hand/arm across the desk to zip across the monitor, plus with the amount of computer use I get everyday I have been known to wear down table tops. I have a 6x8 tablet and I think it's just the right size. I can hit all four corners with wrist movement only.
I use my tablet with everything.. CorelDRAW, Illustrator, PhotoShop, 3D Studio MAX, and even just general navigation. I like kicking back at night and puttin the feet up on the desk, and using the tablet for gettin around the internet as well.
The Wacom Intuos models also have the cordless mouse available which could be easier for doing vector work. Tables are so accurate that sometimes my shaky hands make it hard to stick a node exactly where I want it. =)
If you do get one, I highly reccommend a Wacom Intuos. The programmability and features in this tablet are astounding.
------------------ Mike Pipes Digital Illusion Custom Graphics Lake Havasu City, AZ http://www.stickerpimp.com
Posts: 8746 | From: Lake Havasu, AZ USA | Registered: Jun 2000
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As for the step by step on the horses, you must check out the April and May issues of Sign Builder Illustrated. You will find the complete "how to" techniques I use for a lot of practicle sign applications every sign shop with a computer should be able to do.
And I have many more articles coming out, so get a free subscription and enjoy!
------------------ Draper The Signmaker Bloomington Illinois USA Get To A Letterhead Meet This Summer! See you there! 309-828-7110 drapersigns@hotmail.com Draper_Dave on mIRC chat
Posts: 2883 | From: Bloomington Illinois USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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Thanks to all that replied. One more question.....
Is the Wacom Graphire 4x5 tablet with wireless mouse worth me spending $80 on or would I be better to save some more money and get the Intuos? I know that essentially they are the same except for the levels of sensativity (1024 for Intuos & 512 for Graphire I believe).
Trying to figure out if I will be disappointed with 512 fewer levels and a little less space for digitizing but at the same time I have a hard time justifying spending $200 more at this time.
Thanks again. Sounds like everyone is very pleased
------------------ Amy Brown AMBO Design Lake Helen, FL jabrown@cfl.rr.com
"If only my toddler was better with paint & computers!"
Posts: 3502 | From: Lake Helen, FL, USA | Registered: Feb 2001
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Glenn, the only dis/advantages to tablet sizes are the space they take up (or dont) on your desktop and the amount of hand/arm movement you need to traverse the entire width.
I dont see any advantage to a large tablet unless you are doing CAD work and you have your tablet mapped out for your most popular commands.
Like I mentioned before, I have a 6x8 Intuos and it's just the right size. I've never wished I had a larger tablet, but I do occassionally wish I had a smaller tablet however I used to have a 4x5 and it just didnt cut it for me. Smaller tablets require less movement to move more distance on-screen, and I just found it to be "too fast" for really tight detail work. I bumped up to a 6x8 and now the fine details are easier to control.
Amy, do you do any amount of photo editing/restoration work? If not, or if you do mostly vector artwork, you wont notice much difference between the Graphire and the Intuos. However, if you spend any real amount of time touching up photos or manipulating them, those tablets are WORLDS apart. I do quite a bit of photo editing and manipulation, probably a good 20-30 hours per week, and I wouldnt go back to anything after using the Intuos. The pressure sensitivity is awesome, and the drivers are top notch too. The tablet actually senses if the pen is perpendicular or at an angle to the tablet and it adjusts the spray pattern to reflect that when using your paint program's airbrush tool. There's other things it does that save you a ton of time and headaches too.
------------------ Mike Pipes Digital Illusion Custom Graphics Lake Havasu City, AZ http://www.stickerpimp.com
Posts: 8746 | From: Lake Havasu, AZ USA | Registered: Jun 2000
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Amy..I bought the Graphire tablet about a month ago, mainly becsause I was in the store looking at optical (no ball) mouses (sp?) I just happened to notice the Graphire was on sale and included a wireless/ball-less mouse so I bought it.
I LIKE the mouse because I have the 4x5 area mapped to fit my entire monitor screen so there is no more lifting and repositioning of the mouse when you run to the edge of a mouse pad. Sometimes it is eerie but now that I am used to it I love it.
The pen is a different story...I have used a mouse for so long that I find it difficult to get used to the pen...but I am continuing to use it when I have time to "practice".
I would say, for the price, the graphire is a great way for you to get your feet wet with a tablet without laying out too much money.
------------------ Dave Grundy AKA "applicator" on mIRC "stickin' sticky stuff to valuable vessels and vehicles!" in Granton, Ontario, Canada 1-519-225-2634 dave.grundy@quadro.net www.quadro.net/~shirley
One more to add to Mike's comments. I have a 6x8 Intuos as well, the over all size however is 10 x 12. 6x8 is only the working surface. There is a border around the working surface with menu commands in the top of the border.
I have the tablet resting undereath my desk area, sitting on top of some stack trays that hold different papers and envelopes. The reason it is sitting there is so I can quickly grab it, set it in my lap and start working. I never use it on a flat surface, because I dont have any room on the desk. Plus I still use the mouse while I am working with the tablet because some functions just feel better to click on rather than "jab" on.
If I had a larger tablet than 6x8, I couldn't function, it would wear my arm out traveling all over the surface. Since you can zoom in for close up work, there is no reason to have a larger tablet for what I do.
My sole use of the tablet is to clean up photographs, create airbrush FXs and then print these on the Gerber EDGE for lettering signs and vehicles and POP displays.
Even if you do not have in house digital printing ( like the EDGE or a large format ink jet) you can still do well to PREPARE and CREATE the artwork for your customers....then send it off to be printed.
Maybe you have a "friendly" sign shop near by that can print your artwork for you after you have it tweaked the way you want.
Those that have sent me work to print for them rarely have the artwork ready for printing. So I have to do this for them and it takes some time and costs them a lot of money. They could have gotten the art work ready for me and saved enough to buy a tablet.
Amy, when you say you don't want to spend the extra $200 you are giving up thousands of $$ in artwork preparation for those that need this service. Since every thing is going digital, its time to get geared up and go after the artwork preparation work.
Just my two cents.
------------------ Draper The Signmaker Bloomington Illinois USA Get To A Letterhead Meet This Summer! See you there! 309-828-7110 drapersigns@hotmail.com Draper_Dave on mIRC chat
Posts: 2883 | From: Bloomington Illinois USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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I use a 12" x 12" Wacom Intuos. My thinking when I bought it was that I only wanted to buy a tablet once, and since it would last many years, I decided to get one where I would have no regrets. (Except for the price - ouch!) The ability to have longer, sweeping arm movements was a major factor in the decision, along with presumably more precision. (in a way)
The other thing people seem hung up on is thinking their arm will tire out. I don't find it very bad at all when you have it angled in your lap, and only slightly worse lying flat on the desk. If it does bug you, the larger tablets have a "Quick Point" mode where it splits the drawing area into two. There is a small area that you can zip around in, and use the remaining large area for normal drawing. So it's like having the best of both worlds.
One thing I've noticed whenever the subject gets brought up is that people with the smaller tablets say they wouldn't want a larger one and the people with larger ones say they wouldn't want a smaller one. One things for sure - everyone seems happy with them, so I don't think you'll be disappointed whichever way you go.
------------------ Bob Darnell London, Ontario, Canada
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Bob, like I said in a previous post.. I like to work as efficiently as possible with minimal hand/arm movement.
Most people couldnt begin to have any control on my PC with the way I have the mouse setup.. it literally traverses the entire screen with 1" of movement.
When I need to get detailed, it's time for the tablet. I like the extra space around it though, makes a nice pad to rest your arm on.
Dave, I actually have the space on my desk for the tablet but I usually stick either the keyboard or tablet on top of the monitor as I like both devices to be right in front of the screen, and I rarely have to use both at the same time since the more popular commands can be programmed into the tablet.
------------------ Mike Pipes Digital Illusion Custom Graphics Lake Havasu City, AZ http://www.stickerpimp.com
Posts: 8746 | From: Lake Havasu, AZ USA | Registered: Jun 2000
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I have a 12x12 summasketchII and one of the smaller pablo pressure sensitive tablets here.I prefer the larger tablet as it is closer to the actual size of my monitor & the movements are closer to the actual movements I am used to in hand painting.Being one of those who started my art training back when a computer was as big as a tractor trailer rig I find the larger size is much closer to the actual movements I have practiced for decades.As for desk space I built a small stand for my monitor that has a keyboard sliding drawer just above my tablet.This gives me plenty of room and raises my monitor closer to eye level.
------------------ fly low...timi/NC is,.....Tim Barrow Barrow Art Signs Winston-Salem,NC http://artistsfriend.com/signs
[This message has been edited by timi NC (edited May 27, 2001).]
I have the Graphire, I love it as well. I am also glad I bought the graphire instead of the Intuos, I don't use it as much as I thought I would.
I bought mine online @ computers4sure.com for 75.00. Can't beat the price, even if you need more levels of sensitivity then the graphire can become a cordless mouse pad, as well as become a mobile pad. I keep mine in my laptop bag.
Plus the Graphire tablets come in cool colors!
------------------ Bob Rochon Creative Signworks Millbury, MA bob@creativesignworks.com
"Some people's kids"
Posts: 5149 | From: Millbury, Mass. U.S. | Registered: Nov 1998
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Thanks again everyone. Looks like for the most part that everyone loves their tablets. Think I'm gonna have to get one of these things. Probably go with the Graphire first because I know I can get it relatively cheap. Just don't have the funds right now! Thanks again!
------------------ Amy Brown AMBO Design Lake Helen, FL jabrown@cfl.rr.com
"If only my toddler was better with paint & computers!"
Posts: 3502 | From: Lake Helen, FL, USA | Registered: Feb 2001
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