Wacom and Photoshop ?

Badname

Hi finaly i bout meself a wacom graphire 3 classic, the a6 or a8 dunno the 90euro one the smallest ^^
Now i am having some "problems" I dont feel like it has many pressure levels, and i feel like the dpi is a bit too low ;/ when i draw i dont get fluwent lines but like i'm shaking or something. When i googled for this i found some forum saying in PS7 you need to add ps7 to the wacom list, well i dont see any program list ;o
Any help on fixing these PS7 settings? Or am i just crazy.

And one more thing I triend to fidn this paintingtips thread mentioned somewere, but i was not able to find it. I need some tips on wich settings are best to paint and wich to texture, having a hard time on this.

Thnx for your time

pyromania

I use a graphire 2 with PS7 and never had any issues with it. I've heard that your monitor can sometimes cause interference in the tablet, giving you the "shaking" your describing. Try moving the tablet away from the monitor and see if that helps.

oDD

in photoshop be sure to check "smooth" in the brush settings.

a good place to find anwers to wacom questions: http://www.wacom-europe.com/forum/default.asp

in future be sure to post a pic of a line instead of describing it :P

KDR_11k

Try earthing the tablet and maybe less caffeine .

Badname

Wow having it on a distance form my screen realy solved the jittering and KDR it wasnt the caffeine :P
that smooth option also helped a lot.
Thnx
Could yout wacom get damaged tough by laying around near your screen?
Though my pressure levels dont work at all, its like i got 1 pressure level :S or is this always like this with a small brush size? when i use bigger ones it looks to work better
Got any link to painting tips? Like opasity and pressure ect :O

MoP

You may need to set up the brush options in Photoshop to make the pressure sensitivity affect Opacity (it defaults to only have pressure affecting Size of the brush tool)

The options for the pressure sensitivity should be along the top toolbar, near the right.

malcolm

Also in the control panel you can turn up or down how hard you actually have to press the pen to the tablet for the different pressures to start working. I hate straining my wrist so I set it almost as low as it can go, so the pen can just glide along, but I lose all those fancy tapers that I seem to see in comic book colourings. I don't end up using any pressure sensitive settings in photoshop for the brush dynamics I just like to use the hot keys for size hardness and flow. I have a 4x5 tablette as well, I have had the pressure levels working fine but like I said I turned them off.

Badname

MoP do you mean the opasity | flow settings? cant find what you mean if not.

FAT_CAP

Aaah - so you CAN tie the pressure sensitivity to opacity in PHotoshop? I asked this very same question over on CGCHAT when I first got my tablet and the general consensus was that it oculdnt be done

Is the setting in PHotoshop or the Wacom setup screen thing Mop?

MoP

Badname, no, further to the right of that - there are a set of tabs, one called "Brush Settings" I believe.
Fat_Cap: I'd be severely surprised if anyone on CGChat told you it couldn't be done - it's probably the most-used feature of having a Wacom with Photoshop, apart from the brush size variance with pressure! The settings you want to fiddle with are in Photoshop - I always thought they were fairly obvious...
I can take a screengrab if you need it?

MoP

KDR_11k

It's in the "other dynamics" panel.

FatAssasin

Just helping out Mop here, there's a button along the top toolbar that looks like the tip of a paintbrush with a down arrow. It only shows up when you have the brush tool selected. It's called the "Brush Dynamics" panel. Click on that and you'll see three options (size, opacity, and color) for controlling how Photoshop uses the pressure sensitivity on the tablet. To use the tablet's pressure, set any of the options to "stylus".

FAT_CAP

Thanks for the help so far guys but Im still a bit lost with this one.

Pressing the button with the paintbrush and down arrow on it brings up three options... Airbrush Soft Round 50%, Paintbrush Oval 45 pixels multiply, Tranparent Red Spraypaint. No options to control size, opacity, colour.

Am I missing something REALLY obvious here? - queue shouts of "YES" alround and FAT_CAP's growing blushes!!! Do I have to set these presets up myself? I always thought it was strange not having opacity linked to the pressure sensitivity of the pen.

FAT_CAP

...shit - just found some brush presets for controlling the opacity in the drop down box with all the different brush types in.... DOH!

FatAssasin

Maybe they moved the settings around for different versions of Photoshop. Sounds like you found it, but what version are you using. Just curious. I use version 6 and just haven't seen a reason to upgrade.

Badname

I am using ps7 but i realy cant find any "Brush Dynamics" button, what i see on the top right fof my screen is a tab for the brush properties.
Also how do you rotate your brush in ps7 ?

Scott Ruggels

I use PS7 have a new Wacom and can't get the eraser end of the stylus to work.

Scott

FAT_CAP

Im using version 7... I didnt find the exact button/ settings that you and MOP mentioned - but the BRUSH PRESET button has a load of brushes set to pressure-size, pressure-opacity, pressure-spread- and I found one which I had been skimming past that controls the opacity via pen-pressure.

It would still be cool to know where the checkboxes for controlling these are though - so I can click between them easily while painting.

ALso - SCOTT - does the eraser end of the pen work in the WACOM setup program? If it does have you added PHOTOSHOP to the programs that use the pen settings in the setup program? (cant remember exact names of features as I dont have a pen near me at the moment-sorry!)

MoP

um, if you've found the Brush Presets list (on the right of the top toolbar, next to Tool Presets and Layer Comps tab buttons) then you have found the settings - when you open up that panel, look below "Brush Tip Shape", there are tickboxes for Shape Dynamics and Other Dynamics, among others. Go to the Other Dynamics checkbox, set the "Control" to "Pen Pressure" below the Opacity Jitter slider. That means your brush now is pressure->opacity linked. You can turn off the brush size->pressure linkage in the Shape Dynamics section, I usually work with a brush which is purely opacity-controlled, and I just vary the brush size with [ ] keys.

Scott: What sort of Wacom is it? My Intuos2 worked straight off in PS7 with the eraser.

Badname

Ah i finaly found it, thnax you very much.