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wacom drawing tablet help

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I forgot i had bought this 2 years ago and used 1 time and didnt know what it really was  at first lol my original use was for editing pictures on  instead of using a mouse pad and now im curious where can i find the help in how to use this for tracing etc to apply for vector work.. Hopefully someone has a couple links or suggestions ..Thank you in advance.

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Primal said,

             "… my original use was for editing pictures on instead of using a mouse"

and , "where can i find the help in how to use this for tracing"

 

Let me start by reminding the reader that the tablet is just a tool...

it won't instantly impart any special voodoo to make one a master at tracing

(or drawing, painting, photo manipulation, etc) That said, here are a few tips;

 

Fact is, it won't move you any farther ahead at all when you first start using it.

It's more likely to slow you down for a good while till familiarity and

muscle memory catch up. At this stage, what's most important is putting in the

time and practicing with the instrument. Use it in most, if not all, of your programs.

Get used to the feel of the instrument and work out the awkward difference

between it and the mouse that you're so used to.

 

Get used to looking at the monitor and writing in your lap or on your desk, or

wherever you prop the pad is another unnatural difference to overcome.

Some folks have a hard time with this and set it aside at this point, unable to clear that hurdle.

 

Hang in there and spend some practice time dialing in it's action with pressure and feel.

Getting familiar with what commands are most helpful assigned to the

tablet’s  HotKeys and which ones are better used at the keyboard.

I tend to have one hand on the pen and the other on the keyboard where I use a lot of

keypad shortcuts. When the pens in my hand I want to reach for the mouse as little as

possible and try to complete all the pen work together, at once.

 

Work with the different settings and different brushes to get it to respond

how you'd like. Make it feel as much like a real pencil, pen, or brush as you can.

I have a piece of paper taped over the writing surface of my Wacom to add a little

drag (friction) between the nib and the pad.

Just keep practicing and tweaking till to get comfortable with it.

 

IMO, those are the biggest hurdles with the tablet. Getting it to feel natural.

 

After that, the tablet can definitly enhance abilities you already posses.

It is indeed  a 'better mouse' for drawing, painting, and photo editing.

Thing is, those 3 processes lend themselves more to raster work than vector.

Which is why I don't use the tablet as much within my vector programs.

It's fine with the freehand pen or brush tools but, for rendering and

modifying basic geometric shapes/objects in vector, the mouse is my go to tool.

 

Every project will have different requirments and everyone will have different workflows.

Usually, by the time I'm doing vector node work, the heavy lifting (raster) has

been done in Photoshop or Gimp with the pen & tablet and I'm am down to (vector) fine

tuning it with the mouse. The projects where I begin in Vector are most often

rendered with the mouse. (That's if I don't begin with the Path tool in Ps.)

 

This is just my workflow, you will need to figure out where the tool is most useful to you.

Where can it save you time or help you render or manipulate and image better.

 

It's proficiency with the software that allows the tablet (in the right hands) to shine.

             Otherwise, it's just a linear mouse. These attributes will surely improve with regular practice.

 

         

             skarekrow

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Thank you buddy, that made a lot of sense.I guess that's why i kinda stopped using it in the start lol. I appreciate you taking the time you did for all the info you provided, that was awesome.. I guess i will get rid of it  since it seems to slow you down on things instead of helping lol.....After posting this i came across a digital pens that only require the pen device and regular paper and the receiver needed.You draw or trace your image and then you upload it to your ai etc and save it as a svg,jpeg etc and now you have a vector of what you did which you can at that point select each line or image and edit as needed.... Not sure if this is a step up from the pad or not. i thought it was cool ..  here is a video on it.....http://www.engadget.com/2011/09/12/wacom-inkling-digital-sketch-pen-hands-on-video/

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I bought a fairly expensive Wacom tablet a few years ago and tried it out for about an hour before I suddenly realized you actually need real drawing skills to use one effectively (which I do NOT) luckily I was able to box it back up and get a full refund at best buy or wherever I got it. I determined that I can't draw as good as my 10 year old kid and never have had that ability. 

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I've seen an add for the digital pen... Let us know how that works out.

The Tablet has a place in Graphics work but, like many things, there's a learning curve.

I don't know that it would be very helpful without artistic abilities.

 

This is more like what I've got my eye on, goose.

Just looking to justify the cost.

 

post-43059-0-59124100-1438530384_thumb.j

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I've seen an add for the digital pen... Let us know how that works out.

The Tablet has a place in Graphics work but, like many things, there's a learning curve.

I don't know that it would be very helpful without artistic abilities.

 

This is more like what I've got my eye on, goose.

Just looking to justify the cost.

 

attachicon.gifwacom-cintiq-13HD-img1-l.jpg

I saw a guy using one of those one day and yeah they look awesome. If I did more actual drawn artwork I might have worked a little harder on learning the wacom because of the variable pressure pen which would translate into variable width stroke but for what I do it was easy to see I would be better off just sticking to what I was good at. My sister is an accomplished artist. She has done things like a city map of her town with all the attractions and various stores that they hand out at the visitors center and a few pictures on commission. My oldest daughter is also a wonderful artist like her aunt although she doesn't pursue it professionally but those genes just didn't manifest in my case. 

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Hi there, I own a 21.5" IPS Drawing Tablet Monitor XP-PEN Artist 22E Pro. It's a screen tablet like a Cintiq 22HD , and it was around 500/600 USD when I got it a year ago.  it works well  with vector work. . you can draw directly on the Screen .

The screen is fantastic. I had a bit of trouble setting it up, but not much. For some reason my computer didn't recognize it at first. I then reinstalled the driver, changed ports and then it worked.

And again, the screen is fantastic. It's big precise ( Have some parallax ) and it responsive (no drag).

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